Theology for Beginners
by MissVioletHunter
Summary: During the events of The Avengers, a woman finds herself in the hands of an arrogant god that she can't seem to comprehend.
1. The Road You Didn't Take

This is my first multi-chapter story. It takes place during Avengers, but I had to twist the chronology and some of the facts for the story to make sense. If you look closely at the Avengers movie, there is obviously no time between one battle and the next for all the stuff that happens here. Let's just call it a slightly altered reality. There's not a lot of Loki in Chapter 1 (sorry), but from Chapter 2 onwards he will be there, breaking havoc.

**Chapter 1: The Road You Didn't Take**

_THEOLOGY (definition from the Merriam-Webster Dictionary): the study of religious faith, practice, and experience; especially: the study of God and of God's relation to the world. _

**May 15. Stuttgart.**

"What person can know for sure when his or her life is going to change? What wouldn't we give for the ability to manipulate our destiny, to go back to the moment of an apparent trivial choice in our lives and be able to choose the other option...?"

The woman's voice could be heard, loud and clear, by all the attendants in the meeting room. The international law firm Ulrich & Malcolm, in Stuttgart, owned a state of the art meeting room. To begin with, it was so big that the company always held the Christmas party there; if they wanted, they could have invited all the neighbours and they would still fit in comfortably. It had the acoustics of a concert hall, so no microphones were needed. Furthermore, it wasn't located on the top floor of the U&M building, like any other normal meeting room would be. Instead, it occupied a good part of the ground floor, and one of its sides was entirely composed of several huge french windows that opened towards the zen garden. Under Mr. Malcolm's orders, those windows were always open, so that anyone passing through the garden could hear and see everything in the room. The President of the firm was very proud of his _open door_ policy, literal and figurative. What very few people realized is that, by virtue of this policy, he knew everything that was said and done by anyone on the company. He pretended to accept suggestions and ideas from his team, but he never acted on them. Everybody wasted their time exchanging ideas that would at some point be stolen by one of the senior partners, but the junior associates never complained. In time, some of them would be partners and it would be their turn to have the upper hand in the game.

There were a dozen partners and some junior lawyers and clerks in this particular meeting. The woman delivering the speech was the newest partner at U&M, and she was playing the game with considerable skill. In an short period of time she had been promoted from the Boston office to the London one, and finally to the head office in Germany. Mergers and Acquisitions, which meant swimming in a pool of sharks, but she was good at smelling blood in the water. Right now she was suggesting that the firm took an aggressive position in a merger between two banks. It was a big account and a bold movement, but, if everything went according to plan, by the end of the year she would be one the star attorneys of the firm.

"...and that is why I'm asking my fellow partners to approve my proposal and allow me to assemble a team to set the merger in motion", she finished.

"What worries me is that the press is going to call 'hostile takeover' in any moment, and that would cast a bad light upon us", argued the man sitting at the head of the table.

"That is why I have asked our press department to develop a counter strike, Mr. Malcolm. They are already working on it, and I've sent the details to all the partners less than an hour ago. As soon as we publish it, we will be regarded as heroes by the whole financial world, and the takeover... sorry, the _merger_ will be a fact."

The President seemed happy with the answer. "You have excelled yourself this time, Miss Channing. Good work, we will submit this to a vote first thing tomorrow. Ladies and gentlemen, the meeting is adjourned."

The atmosphere around the table relaxed a bit, as the attendants started closing their laptops and leaving towards the elevator. The woman in the navy suit stayed in the room, reviewing her notes.

"Leah, I predict than in ten years you will be President, CEO, Supreme Empress or whatever other position you want to occupy in this company."

She looked at the young man who had been sitting to her right during the meeting and flashed a quick smile at him. "Not so fast, Mark. I have to get this operation right first."

"You're all work and no fun since they made you a partner. Let's go have a few drinks... for old times' sake."

"You would be more worried about work if your name wasn't Mark Ulrich Jr., and if you weren't the heir apparent of Ulrich & Malcolm", she sneered.

"At the risk of sounding like a spoiled brat, I must say I deserve everything I have achieved. The same as you." Mark tried to slide a tentative hand around Leah's waist, but she got out of reach with a swift movement.

"Let bygones be bygones, Mark. You know second parts are always a bore", she sighed. "Also, I'm going to the opera tonight, with the wife and the two daughters of a client. Someone in PR thought it would be funny to make me play babysitter for a day. So, if you'll excuse me, I have to finish planning the demise of a poor investment bank... before the fat lady sings."

"You love the thrill of the hunt, don't you, Leah?"

She lifted her gaze from the papers and looked him in the eye. "It takes a true predator to recognize another."

"Well, have fun plotting your evil schemes and watching _La Bohéme_ for the umpteenth time. If you change your mind, you know where to find me", he winked at her. "Oh, there seems to be a visitor waiting for you in the garden, and he's been there for a while", he observed before leaving the room.

She turned around to face the french windows, a bit perplexed. No one had informed her of any visitor, but there was indeed a man standing outside in the zen garden. Tall, dark-haired, in a black suit. A very expensive, custom tailored black suit, she thought. A good lawyer could smell money from a mile away, and the stranger reeked of it. Besides, he was quite attractive. No, not attractive... beautiful. Almost too beautiful for a man, his hands a bit too delicate, his pale skin a tad too smooth. She immediately went into her 'professional, efficient and attentive but not too friendly' mode.

"Is there anything I can do for you, sir?"

"Your powers of speech are truly extraordinary." His voice was soft, almost husky, and the corners of his mouth were curled in a little smile.

"Thank you. But you didn't have to wait outside until the end of the meeting. If you had made your presence known, I'm sure Mr. Ulrich or Mr. Malcolm would have interrupted it to receive you."

"Ah, but I do not wish to see any of them right now." A smirk this time, and a step towards her. "On the other hand, eavesdropping can be very entertaining. And instructive."

"Do you have an interest in corporate finance?" She returned the smile, tilting her head in a flirty way and wondering how hard it would be to steal a big client like this from one of their bosses.

"I am about to... how would you say it? Launch an aggressive takeover."

"I love those. They are the quickest way to penetrate a profitable market."

The man licked his lips and stared at Leah, making her feel exposed and uncomfortable, although her dress shirt was buttoned up to her neck. _"It takes a true predator to recognize another"_, he said, mimicking the words she had used just a minute before.

Leah frowned, took a step backwards, and pretended to arrange the chairs around the table. "Let me get the receptionist and clear this up. There must have been a misunderstanding with your appointment." She picked up the phone from the other side of the table, but when she looked outside again the man had vanished. She went out to the garden, now deserted, and crossed the hall towards the main reception.

"Bertha! Bertha! Where did that man go?"

"What man, Leah, dear?" The receptionist, a matronly middle-aged woman with thick glasses that was holding a phone in each hand, looked at her, a bit confused.

"There was a client... a visitor, just outside the meeting room. The only other door to the garden is through this reception."

"It's past five o'clock, my dear. No client gets an appointment after four, and most of your colleagues are leaving already. Are you sure of what you saw?"

Without bothering to answer, she hurried back to the huge meeting room, gathered her papers and returned to her office. There, she poured herself a glass of scotch and drank it in one fluid motion. The prospect of a boring night at the opera was dreadful... for a moment she considered telling Public Relations to fuck off, cancelling the plans and calling Mark. At least she would have a drinking (and sleeping) companion, and would stop worrying about working too many hours... and seeing ghosts.

The ice cubes tinkled in the empty glass as she placed it on her desk and walked, this time slowly, towards the garden. There was definitely nobody there, only the stones, the plants, the wood bridge and the gravel, that the gardener raked carefully in undulating patterns and circles twice a day.

The gravel that showed no other footprints than her own.

"I'm overworked. I didn't sleep well yesterday. And ghosts don't exist", Leah said to nobody in particular, a bit louder than her usual calm tone. She even managed a weak smile, right before feeling the touch of an icy finger on her cheek and exhaling a small cloud of vapor.

The handful of clerks and interns that stayed late in the U&M office to do some extra hours were surprised by the sudden banging of a door, the hurried sound of a pair of high heels clicking on the wooden floor, and the sight of the usually composed partner Leah Channing practically running out of the building, with her coat dangling over one arm and her handbag and two portfolios on the other.

"These kids... Running, always running as if the Devil was right behind them", mused Bertha, the receptionist, shaking her head in disapproval. "They should be friends with him after all, being lawyers..."


	2. Gracious Living Fantasy

_This part is basically a brief retelling of the Avengers Stuttgart scene. It's been probably done a thousand times, but I needed a point of entry for the story and I chose this one._

**Chapter 2: Gracious Living Fantasy**

_Viva Musetta! Cuor birichin!_  
_Gloria ed onor, onor e gloria_ _  
del quartier latin! _

_Tutto splendor!_  
_Di Francia è il più bell'uom!_  
_Il bel Tambur Maggior_ _  
Eccolo là! Che guarda, passa; va! _

The curtain fell, marking the intermission of _La Bohéme_. Leah clapped with fake enthusiasm for half a minute, and then followed Mrs. Astor and her two daughters to the foyer downstairs, where some kind of scientific conference was taking place. She needed to get her hands on a drink before the incessant chatter of Mrs. Astor drove her insane. The woman was trying to get her eldest girl an internship at U&M, and she had been singing her praises out on every chance she had.

"Anna will get her law degree next year. She's got the highest grades in her class, and it would be wonderful for her to learn from the best! Mr. Ulrich speaks so highly of you..."

The two girls, Anna and her younger sister Liesl, were clearly mortified by her mother's attitude, and Leah decided to cut the conversation short before they died of embarrassment.

"Anna, why don't you come to my office next week? Bring me a copy of your resumé and I'll see what I can do", she said, pitying the poor girl in advance. She looked eager and kind, too kind for the type of business she wanted to get into. "Let's just enjoy the evening and stop talking about business, shall we?"

Mrs. Astor ordered champagne. The waiter had just brought it when they heard something, like a muffled thump, from the other side of the foyer. The whole place fell into silence.

Then she saw him. Her ghost in a black suit. Walking towards the speaker with the elegance of a dancer and a strange looking staff in his hand, which he had just used to knock up a security guard. Some people stood up to get a better view of what was happening, and Leah's vision was blocked for a moment. She heard a cry, another thump, and a wheezing noise that chilled her blood. People started rushing towards the exit, joined by a disorganized crowd that came running from the upper floor.

In a few seconds, the rush turned into a stampede. The four women tried to make their way towards the door without being crushed. Mrs. Astor clung to her eldest daughter's arm, and Leah grabbed Liesl's hand, trying not to lose sight of the other two. _Fuck, if something happens to these people the big boss is going to crucify me,_ she thought, trying to maneuver among the hundreds of people, in different stages of panic, that ran across the hall. Halfway through the exit the space became scarce, and the way was blocked by an upturned desk. She looked back, trying to search for a side exit or an accessible window.

The stranger was still in the foyer, strolling calmly among the crowd, and Leah couldn't be sure if he had seen her or not. The light started to flicker around him with a golden glow, and in a moment his elegant suit had morphed into a full armor. He looked like something from another world, something glorious and terrifying. Some people had stopped running and stared at him, hypnotized, like deers in headlights.

With a considerable effort, Leah pushed her way through the doors of the opera house, with Liesl tugging at her hand. The teenager had lost a shoe and was starting to drag behind the moving mass of people, until she finally fell to the floor with a loud yelp.

"Stop, I sprained an ankle!"

"I don't care!" Leah grabbed the girl's arm and pulled her to her feet, with a hint of deliberate cruelty. A wave of panic was creeping up her back, and the only way to keep it under control was getting angry at this silly girl who chose the worst possible moment to stumble and fall. "Get back on your feet and run. Keep running or I swear I'll leave you here!"

By pure chance they found Mrs. Astor and Anna on their way out. They had almost reached the middle of the square when they realized there was nowhere else to run, or hide. Three other beings, identical to the armored man behind them, had appeared in each corner of the place, encircling the whole crowd. A police car was suddenly blasted by some sort of energy beam, and the sound of several police sirens filled the space.

The man in the horned helmet was ordering them to kneel. His voice echoed through the air, like powered by some kind of magical wave. Leah knelt in half a second; she was starting to feel dizzy and tired anyway, too tired to run or even stand. She lowered her head, trying to hide behind the other kneeling figures, and tried to get her mobile phone from her clutch, but it slid off her hand and she looked for it on the ground, blindly. She was distracted when the armored figure spoke again, and realized a second too late that the crowd had fallen silent and that several people were looking at her.

_Shit. Not a good moment to lose concentration._

"Are you too occupied to give me your unconditional attention, woman? Do you find the words of your God so tedious?" His voice was soft, almost silky, like he was gently scolding a disobedient child.

Leah's tongue was paralyzed with fear. Had he just called himself a God? She shook her head and muttered an apology, hoping that he would focus on someone else if she seemed harmless enough.

"Bring her to me", he said, to no one in particular. A big guy in a tuxedo and a middle aged man in a grey suit stood up, grabbed her arms and dragged her forward until she was standing in front of the horned figure. His imposing figure towered above her. He was impossibly tall, at least a head taller than everyone, not counting the horns. A hand slid under Leah's chin, forcing her to look in his eyes; there was no hint of softness in them.

"Did the proverbial cat get your tongue, junior partner Channing?"

So he had recognized her. Under the trepidation in her mind she felt angry. Angry at herself for her stupid lack of focus, at the two men that were holding her and didn't even try to look ashamed, at the self-proclaimed God for singling her out. She tried to swallow the knot in her throat, to get her voice back and her brain working.

"I apologize. I was... overwhelmed by your presence", she said in what she hoped was a respectful tone. If he believed himself divine, better start acting the part of a penitent.

"Liar. You were hiding from me and looking for a means of escape."

_That's it. I'm dead. 'Goodbye cruel world' and all that. _

"Kill the bitch and leave the rest of us alone!" suddenly shouted a voice in the back of the crowd.

"What?" Leah's stomach revolted, and she started struggling, trying to turn around while a white-hot rage filled her.

The armored figure grinned, and his left hand circled her throat loosely, making her gasp. "Good. Someone is offering their God a sacrifice", he whispered.

Leah heard herself laughing, the desperate laugh of one who has nothing to lose. "There you have it, _humanity_ in its truest form! Maybe you're right and deep down we're still so primitive that we'll do anything to save our miserable lives, so weak that we would gladly give you complete power for fear of using it ourselves."

He didn't answer. His gaze wandered to the small golden cross around her neck, and he held it between his fingers for a moment.

"Can I ask for just one thing?" she said with a bitter smile.

"Speak."

"Make it fast. Don't let this herd of idiots enjoy my pain."

"Herd... Nice choice of words. They do look like sheep from here. But they are my worshippers now, and they have chosen you as my sacrifice."

"Nobody has chosen me. They would worship a wall of bricks if it had some kind of power over them. And you don't need a sacrifice, in any case."

"And why would that be?" he asked, arching an eyebrow and letting go of her neck.

_Keep him interested, keep him talking. Someone will come and help._

"In some ancient cultures criminals were sacrificed to appease the god they had offended. But, as far as I know, I am no more criminal than any of my fellow citizens, especially the _outstanding_ ones that were so keen on pushing me forward at the first chance they had", she spat with a venomous look at the two men that were still holding her. They immediately released her arms and fixed their eyes on the ground, trying not to attract any attention.

"Interesting theory. Continue."

She was thinking like crazy, forming sentences in her mind and discarding them, looking desperately for a way out. "Ancient Celts sometimes sent an emissary, chosen to communicate directly with the gods of the Otherworld. But that wouldn't make a lot of sense either, because you are already here, talking to me, so there would be no point in sending me somewhere else. If you kill me, you will only succeed in proving that I am mortal, and that's something we already know."

He looked mildly amused now. "Beautifully put, but then why exactly should I spare you?"

_Put those oratory lessons to work, girl. Talk him out of this. Save your ass._

On a sudden burst of inspiration she stood on her tiptoes to whisper in his ear.

"Because all these people don't give a damn about you. All they want is to find a scapegoat and get out of your reach. Because if you were powerless and weak like them they would destroy you in seconds, that is how a mob thinks. Because maybe the only real worshipping you will get, _my God_, is the one that comes from the person who is about to die."

The man in the golden armor smiled. "That is an unusual prayer. A bit lacking in humility, but your rhetoric is quite compelling... again."

"Compelling enough to keep me breathing?"

"Oh, better than that." He held her chin again, running a finger along her cheek. His touch was icy cold, paralyzing.

_Crap, now I may have gone too far._

"We don't kneel to men like you." A new voice rose from behind her, a voice that sounded old and tired but loud enough to be heard in the silence that dominated the place. The self-proclaimed God released Leah from his grasp; her knees gave way and she sunk to the floor, exhausted and relieved at the same time. Her heart was pounding so fast that she didn't even hear what the elderly man was saying. An energy beam flew over the crowd's head, and she looked up just in time to see a blue figure diving in from above and landing between the crowd and their attacker. A strange aircraft hovered over the square with a deafening noise, and everybody was running, this time in all directions, away from the fight and the danger.

A mayhem of screams and panic erupted again. Ambulances and police cars started to appear from the adjacent streets, and Leah hurried, stumbling, towards a group of paramedics.

The last thing she saw before being taken inside the ambulance was the dark-haired God, apparently defeated, surrounded by a group of armed guards. There was no malice or rage in his expression, nothing but serenity.

Nothing that could explain the chills that went down her spine during the brief moment his blue-green eyes focused on hers.


	3. Perpetual Anticipation

**Chapter 3: Perpetual Anticipation**

**May 17. Stuttgart.**

It was seven in the morning when Leah arrived to her office. The usually busy city center was almost deserted, partly due to the ungodly hour, and partly because the shock of two nights before was still fresh. Everybody spoke in desolated whispers and gazed over their shoulders a bit more than usual. The newspapers and television stations broadcasted their version of the events, all of them different. Terrorist attack, collective hallucination, a publicity stunt gone wrong. One tabloid had even gone as far as to suggest an absurd theory involving aliens.

She had spent all the previous day between the hospital and the police station, making statements and enduring medical tests. They had even tried to send her to a therapist, to no avail because she hated shrinks. The police asked a lot of questions and explained very little, they seemed to be as confused as everyone else. Leah had repeated the details of that night to a Landespolizei detective, a couple of federal officers and a strange looking guy, an American, supposedly an Interpol investigator. For some reason, she never mentioned her first encounter with the mysterious man at the Japanese garden.

She sat in front of her laptop and tried to get a bit of work done, without much success. All meetings for the week had been cancelled and the office was practically dead. Her secretary had called in sick. An anxiety crisis, like half of the Stuttgart population.

_Note to self: if my secretary is not here tomorrow, fire her ass._

It was almost eight when she met Bertha, the receptionist, in front of the coffee machine. As much as Leah despised most of her coworkers, the maternal looking woman with a fixed smile on her face was the closest thing she had to a friend.

"Leah, honey, the police is here to see you."

"What, again? They have a thousand witnesses to question, one would think they would have the decency to stop pestering me."

"I know, dear, but they want you to sign some papers. I put them in the waiting room so that they wouldn't bother you in your office."

"Bertha, have you considered becoming my secretary? With a pay raise, of course."

The woman smiled, pushing her glasses up her nose. "You've fired three secretaries in the last six months. I care about you, dear, but I'm too close to retirement and I don't want a high risk job right now. It's not worth the money."

"Fair enough. I guess I deserve it."

"If you treated the rest of your colleagues half as well as you treat me..."

"I know, I know. But some people don't respond well to kindness. They expect me to be bossy, I give them bossy. It works for me", she finished, walking into the waiting room.

One of the two police officers was the same one she had been talking to the day before. "Miss Channing. I'm afraid we need you to sign another copy of your statement", he said, handing her a pen and a sheet of paper.

"I've signed so many things that I'm starting to feel like a rock star", she sighed. "How is the investigation going? Anything new? All I got yesterday from your Interpol friend was that all information was classified."

The man took off his sunglasses. "He was not from the Interpol. He belongs to a secret espionage agency called SHIELD. Everything related to them is classified."

"You shouldn't be telling me that, officer... I could call the press and give them an exclusive", she joked.

_Funny. I could have sworn his eyes were not blue yesterday._

Before she could react, the other policeman held her by the arms, covering her mouth with his hand. She felt a sharp object pressed to her neck, and then everything vanished.

* * *

Head pounding. Dry mouth. Cold, clammy sweat. Leah opened her eyes, let out a small grunt, and closed them again. She was in a brightly lit room, lying on what felt like a soft and fluffy couch. Lifting a hand to her eyes to shield them from the light, she focused on the tall figure in front of her.

It was _him_, of course. Who else. Holding a power stance in front of a fireplace, and wearing normal clothes again. His coat and jacket hung neatly on the back of a chair, and he seemed to be studying her.

"Good morning", she muttered. There was no need to be rude, especially to someone who had proved to be so dangerous. "They say third time's the charm, but every time I see you I feel a lot worse than the previous one". The light wasn't hurting her eyes anymore, but the pulsing sensation in her head refused to go away.

"Good afternoon. You have been asleep for several hours."

"It's the usual reaction when someone drugs you." She got up using the back of the coach for support, and did a quick check of her belongings. Her bag was on the floor next to her, and her clothes were apparently in order.

_At least I didn't wake up chained to a wall in a dark basement. Yet._

"You put on quite a show two days ago... The last time I saw you, you were getting arrested."

He walked towards her, slowly, and stopped a few feet away. "There is no prison in your world that can hold me. Not for long."

Leah looked around her, unsettled. The room was extravagantly large, with impossibly tall ceilings and huge windows. All she could see from them was miles of mountain landscape, rocky and barren except for a few pine trees.

"I don't recognize that view. I've a feeling we're not in Stuttgart anymore."

"That is what your people call the Catskill Mountains, near the city of New York."

"You brought me to the other side of the world?"

"Unless you have developed a sudden interest in geography, you should ask the questions you really want to ask." He took another step towards her, so close now that she had to tilt her head to look at him.

"All right. Who are you and what is going on here?"

"One thing at a time... Leah." He whispered her name like a cool breeze. "You already know who I am, from your visit to the police station."

"The police told me that you are a megalomaniac with a Norse God complex and some kind of technology that makes it look like you have weird powers. Not my words, I'm just quoting."

"You are far too intelligent to believe that, unless I have made a grave mistake in judging your character", he smirked. "There is no complex. I am your God and the future ruler of your Earth... as soon as I have taken care of a few obstructions in my path."

"So you want me to believe you're really..."

"Loki. Of Asgard." He took her hand and kissed it gently. Cold lips, warm breath. Against her will, she shivered to the touch.

_So he's a God, of the hand-kissing type. Fucking perfect._

"Now that we're on the question of names... Are there any special issues regarding yours?" she asked, trying to regain her coolness.

He looked puzzled for a second.

"I mean, what shall I call you? 'My God' is a rather fastidious title. And 'My Lord' sounds dreadfully Victorian."

"You can call me Loki, for now."

"Any prohibition of taking your name in vain?"

"Not that I know of."

"Will I spontaneously combust or be fulminated by lightning if I say it?"

"Do you always talk so much, woman?"

"If I promise to stop talking, will you let me go?"

"No."

"What if I talk incessantly until I give you a headache?"

"I will probably close your mouth myself. Permanently."

Leah nodded and retreated back to the couch. Her eyes wandered to the other side of the room, to the tall table that served as a bar.

_God, I need a drink. Badly. I may need a whole bottle right now to soak up all this._

Loki saw her looking at the bar and nodded his approval. Trying to keep as far away from him as possible, Leah walked over to the table. Too late for a Bloody Mary, and definitely too early for a vodka martini. She decided for a Southern Comfort with a bit of cranberry juice, and tried to keep her hands from shaking while she poured the drink. The first sip burned her throat. After the second she felt confident enough to look at her kidnapper.

"I'm guessing you're not going to kill me, you could have done that without all this waffle."

"I did not bring you here to be killed."

"Then what am I doing here?"

"Ah, finally. I thought you were going to avoid the question forever."

"I'm not avoiding anything." She was. She dreaded the answer but, on the other hand, wasn't brave enough to deal with the uncertainty. "Why am I here?"

"To share my bed."

"Tonight?"

"Every night."

_This can't be happening. I'm trapped in someone else's morbid fantasy._

Leah backed instinctively against the table, trying very hard not to panic. His eyes never strayed from her, watching her reactions, and she wondered if he could read minds. She wondered because hers was racing, desperately searching for a way out.

"With all due respect... I don't understand."

"I will do all the explaining you need."

"I've been here, unconscious, for several hours. You could have done all you wanted with me, but instead you're practically asking. Politely."

"Would you have preferred it the other way round?"

"I'm just trying to figure out your game."

"My game, as you call it, is quite simple. Yes, I could have ravished you on that couch anytime I wanted, ruined you in your sleep. I could have dragged you to the bed, kicking and screaming, covered in chains. But I don't take pleasure in possessing a mindless body, and in your case I have decided to be patient. You can thank me for that later."

"You could have asked for a volunteer in Stuttgart. Some blonde Teutonic walkiria with a kink for Norse guys in armors and horns."

"The doe doesn't choose to be hunted. It is the hunter's choice to go after it."

"I'm not quite sure what you mean by that, but that reference to hunting is doing nothing for my peace of mind." Trying to keep her back to the wall, she walked towards the couch again, because her knees where shaking. "You're saying that you have chosen me, for some reason."

Loki sat down beside her. He looked even taller from up close. "Two days ago, I slipped into the garden of a building, and I heard you talking to your colleagues. You spoke of power, wealth, and the prospects of battle. Of how the lives of hundreds of people would change because of your plans."

"I spoke of law, money, and the dirty maneuvers of a corporate merger. Those things are not supposed to turn people on."

"Let's just say I was... intrigued. But I had other matters to attend, and I wasn't expecting to meet you again after our brief conversation. Imagine my pleasant surprise when I saw you later that night, kneeling in front of me." He finished the sentence with a small head inclination and held out a hand to Leah, but she didn't move. "You should feel honored to be chosen."

"Honored? You're telling me that my presence here is due to a monumental amount of rotten luck. That if I hadn't gone to the opera that night I would be in my flat now, having dinner by myself and catching up on my reading. I can't feel honored just because of a fucked up cosmic coincidence."

"What you call coincidence is what I call fate, Leah. A God's answer to you, if you prefer." His extended hand travelled to her neck, to the chain that held the small golden cross. "Has this other God ever given you an answer?"

"I've never bothered him with questions."

"Then why do you wear this symbol?"

"I inherited it from my Italian grandmother, along with my eyes and my tendency to throw tantrums. It doesn't mean anything." She was starting to feel helpless, torn in two between her rational brain, the one that told her that he was no more than a man... no more than a wanted criminal, and the other part of her mind, the one that was a bit more than curious about this improbable deity. The same corner of her conscience that was trying very hard to ignore the light touch of his fingers over the hollow of her throat.

_Screw this, I'm a grown woman. I'm too old to even think of swooning over an tight fitting suit and a perfect face._

The rational mind took the lead for a moment, and she flinched back. "Look, I didn't ask to be brought here. I don't want to be here. You just admitted that it could have been anyone else instead of me, so I'm going to ask you something. Is there any possibility, little as it may be, that you let me go? Any way out for me... at all? Because, if it exists, I want it; just name your terms. I won't tell anyone about this, I'll just go home and keep my mouth shut while you find someone else to warm your sheets."

"You are really used to relying on your eloquence." Loki's eyes gleamed. "I will not discuss my motives, with you or with anyone else. But there may be a way. And if you take it... I will have to content myself with a less interesting companion."

"Yes, of course I'll take it! There has to be some crazy woman somewhere who gets off on screwing a madman."

"A God."

"Whatever. Show me the exit?"

Loki walked to the TV screen mounted on the wall and pulled a DVD from a plastic case. He inserted it in the DVD player: the screen showed the news coverage of the Stuttgart attack, probably filmed from a nearby building.

"This may require a bit of an effort on your part. I will stop the recording on a random instant, and _you_ will choose your successor."

"From the women in the square?"

"Exactly."

She hid her face between her hands for a few seconds. _I'm going to throw someone else to the wolves. I'm going to become the most despicable person on the planet and burn in Hell. Supposing there is one. _"Do it."

The camera panned slowly across the kneeling multitude, showing row after row of anguished faces. Loki pressed a button on the remote and the image froze... on two blonde girls who knelt side by side, holding hands.

_Anna and Liesl. Bastard. 'Random instant', my ass._

"Keep going, I'll pick someone else", she muttered, trying to sound inconsequential.

"One of those two." His voice was as calm as always. Leah turned to face him, livid.

"I know those girls. Let me choose someone else."

"No."

"Someone over twenty-one, for fuck's sake!"

"Time is up. Make your choice or it will be you. Kicking and screaming, if there is no other way."

"Give me a real choice, then! This is blackmail. It's not..."

"If you are going to say _fair_, do not bother. You trade in unfairness every day."

"Not with other people's lives!" Leah felt a wave or outrage in her chest and clenched her fists to her sides. "You never intended to let me go; this was just some kind of sick game."

Loki grabbed her by the shoulders, digging his fingers into her flesh, and bared his teeth in a cruel smile. "I was merely testing the elasticity of your principles. Weren't you so sure that you wanted a way out? Well, I offered you one: the chance to walk free, and the only thing you had to do was choose your replacement. And you almost did it... you were ready to buy your freedom at the cost of someone else's. Did you really think me so weak, so... compassionate, that I would give you an easy escape and let you return to your life with your pretty little conscience unscathed? That you could bat your lashes and pout, and I would react like one of the stupid mortal men you are used to manipulate? What do you take me for?"

"I wouldn't _take _you for anything in the world."

"That remains to be seen. You seem to have forgotten the way you looked at me when we first met."

"That was strictly business. You were the opportunity for a new account, nothing more."

"Protest all you like. I saw your desire. You wanted me", he hissed.

There was no possible answer to that. She had really felt attracted to him at first sight; she had thought him magnificent in his gold attire; and now there was this small, dark corner in her mind that felt drawn to this man. Or God. Whatever. In any case, she knew she was out of options. Leah broke free from his arms and rushed to the bar again, this time for more Southern Comfort and less cranberry juice, swallowed instead of sipped. She had just finished pouring her third glass when Loki grabbed her waist from behind, making her look at him.

"Do you find me so repulsive that you're trying to drink yourself into oblivion?" For a brief instant, he looked more concerned than annoyed.

_What's the worst that can happen? Bad sex? I'm drinking on an empty stomach, with a bit of luck I won't be able to remember a thing..._

"I can't reach oblivion in two minutes. Right now I'd just settle for stupidity, and I'm half a glass away from it."

"You wanted an explanation and I gave you one. You wanted an opportunity of escape, and I granted it to you. I have been extremely patient with you until now, lovely Leah", he whispered, close to her ear. "Two more minutes of waiting may be all you will get."

She chuckled. "I've been called many things in my life... but never _lovely_."

"It suits you." He brushed a strand of hair from her face. "Under the anger, the bitterness and the endless array of words, you are lovely."

Leah closed her eyes, clutching her drink so tightly that it almost spilled. Her mind was too clouded to keep the verbal banter going, and not clouded enough to pretend this wasn't happening, not yet. Loki's fingers were now brushing the side of her neck, lazily, without haste, and she didn't flinch of move away. After all... he was right, wasn't he? She wasn't exactly a good person and she probably deserved something like this. And if he was right, if all she had to do was yield to his green eyes and his caressing voice, if she could just stop thinking for just one second...

_You gambled and you lost. To hell with everything, close your eyes and think of England._

She took one last sip, put the unfinished drink on the mantelpiece with a loud clink, and placed the palm of her hand in Loki's chest. "Let's get this over with."

"I confess I was expecting a bit more enthusiasm."

"That would require several more drinks, and maybe a..." She was suddenly pushed against the wall before she could finish the sentence. Loki's hand grasped the back of her neck, and his lips crashed roughly against hers.

The tall cocktail glass fell from the mantelpiece, spilling its red contents all over the carpet.


	4. All Things Bright and Beautiful

**Chapter 4: All Things Bright and Beautiful**

It's generally considered good luck to spill wine from a glass. Unfortunately, the collective imaginarium doesn't say anything about the spilling of cocktails. They're just random events that usually happen at parties, and no one pays attention to them.

No one was paying attention to the drink that had just met its untimely fate on the carpet. Leah was too busy trying to breathe, trapped between the wall and the hungry lips of a god. There was no finesse in his kisses at first, no memory of the quiet and soothing tone he had used for most of their conversation. Loki was biting his way into her mouth, teeth grazing her lips, tongue battling against tongue. Tasting her, drowning her in sensation.

Leah gasped for air when he finally backed up a little, and clung to his shoulders for support. It was like embracing a marble statue, his lean muscles tensing beneath the fabric of the shirt. Before he could claim her mouth again she brushed her fingers against his lips, feeling his laboured breath on her skin. He smiled briefly and planted a soft kiss on her fingertips.

_Oh, please, no. Fuck the brains out of me, I can stand that. But don't be tender, don't be sweet._

She responded grabbing a fistful of his hair and attacking his mouth greedily. His hand was moving down her blouse, undoing the buttons with inhuman speed before discarding the garment on the floor, and she let out a feeble moan when he cupped her breast, wandering briefly under the bra before letting his fingers run over the skin of her stomach. Cold, smooth fingers that sent goosebumps everywhere, almost waking her from the alcoholic breeze she had plunged into.

Holding onto his neck, she started curling a leg around his hip, pulling him closer. He placed a hand under her thigh and, to her surprise, lifted her up slowly, with just one arm, without even trying to seek support on the wall behind her.

_That's not normal, that's not... human. How strong is he anyway? _

Loki laughed softly at the sight of her amazed expression. "Forget all the men that came before me. Erase them from your mind. After tonight you will want only me... you will need only me", he whispered hoarsely, nipping at the tender skin below her ear.

Leah pressed her lips together to refrain from moaning when he ground against her, pinning her against the wall, letting her feel the hardness that stretched the front of his trousers. She dug her nails into his back, and almost without realizing she found herself dragged to another room, a large bedroom. The blinds were almost closed and all she could see was the bed where he shoved her, with little ceremony, making short work of her skirt and stockings. At least he wasn't tearing her clothes apart.

Leah reached down to palm his crotch and he pushed his hips into her hand and groaned, breathing heavily. She let her hand explore his length, carefully, still over the fabric. That earned her a trail of wet kisses down her breasts while Loki tugged at her bra and slid if off her shoulders. Lips became teeth and kisses became bites, grazing roughly over her nipples, making her squirm and whimper under him.

_Don't let him get into your head. It may be wrong but it feels amazing, and that's all there is to it._

That was all there was to it until Loki slid a hand between her legs, letting his fingers wander under her knickers, and Leah sensed her self control abandoning her. She was used to being in charge in bed, teasing and talking dirty and leaving her partners breathless. But his hands, God, his hands were sending white-hot coils towards her center, and when he slid two fingers into her, without warning, she grasped the sheets until her knuckles ached. He was reducing her to a sex-starved teenager using only his hands. With her eyes firmly closed, she focused on sending her mind to a different place. To the awkwardness of her first boyfriend and his klutzy lovemaking, to the frustrating drunken tryst she'd had once in the alley behind a pub. Anything to distract her from the way her body was responding to him.

She felt Loki pull her knickers down her legs, all the while stroking her thighs with maddening skill. She was now completely naked, and Loki still completely clothed. Not fair. Not fair at all, so she rolled over to straddle him and undid his tie with a short and precise movement (an ability acquired after numerous sessions of office sex with her colleague Mark), helping him get rid of his shirt. The marble statue analogy was spot on, she thought, his hard chest smooth and pale under her hands. She ran a single fingernail down his chest, tracing a slow path across his stomach and stopping just below the waist.

Loki let out a sharp breath and grabbed her hand. "Do that again." She complied, this time pressing her polished nails against his skin, dragging the tips down with a calculated amount of pressure that would have made any other man hiss in pain, but his only response was a husky laugh. Encouraged by this reaction, Leah fumbled with his belt, whipped down his trousers and briefs in one go, and freed his hardened length. Pulsing, throbbing under her touch.

_Jesus fucking Christ. At least now I know the horns are not meant to compensate for anything. _

He seized her brief moment of hesitation and gripped her waist tightly, pushing her on her back and trapping her between the mattress and his hard, cool body. Loki's fingers sought her entrance again, caressing her wet folds with growing urgency, until he wrapped his hands around her hips and entered her with a single, powerful thrust. The sudden invasion made Leah throw her head back on the pillow, arching her back and letting out a feeble cry. She only had a couple of seconds to adjust before the god started building a rhythm, burying himself deeper and deeper while he bit and sucked at her neck, drawing faint bruises on the tender skin of her throat. Leah felt the tension build in her like a heat wave, growing with each stroke.

_Damn, if he keeps licking my neck like that I'm going to start screaming my allegiance to him. In several languages._

Her body ached in need of release, but she refused to let go. She clenched her fists, fingernails digging into her palms, hoping that the sharp pain would distract her. It was just a silly little act of rebellion, a stubborn denial of the pleasure that threatened to invade her body. A selfish way of saying 'I'm not having fun and you can't make me'. She knew Loki wasn't going to last long. He was thrusting faster and harder now, one hand on her hip and the other teasing her breasts, his hot breath close to her cheek between one hungry kiss and the next.

And then it was showtime. She grabbed him tightly and lifted her hips up to meet his, grinding, pushing. Putting on a show of wanton pants and moans to replace what she wasn't allowing herself to feel. Eyes closed, mind on the game. When she felt Loki's movements become erratic she clenched her muscles a few times around him, reading the signs of his imminent climax, clawing furiously at his shoulders until he came with a low growl and collapsed over her.

_I may deserve an eternity of bad sex for faking... but I refuse to dance to his tune. _

In the darkness without words that followed his release, Loki planted a kiss on Leah's shoulder, and she finally gathered the courage to open her eyes.

"Lovely Leah", he whispered, stretching his body with feline grace and moving just a couple of inches away from her. One of his hands remained on her stomach, tracing lazy circles and lines on her skin. It tickled and she giggled, squirming a bit against him. Drowsy and drained from the sex and the alcohol, she nestled her head on the crook of Loki's neck and drifted off to sleep.

* * *

**May 18. The Catskills.**

When Leah woke up in the morning she was alone in bed, with a mild hangover for her only company. She checked her watch, the only piece of her outfit that was still in place, and realized she hadn't eaten anything in more than twenty four hours.

After a quick shower she did a damage assessment session in front of the mirror: two bite marks on the neck, a small bruise on the left hip and a bit of soreness down south. She stared at her reflection for a moment. The dark circles under her eyes were a not so nice extra, courtesy of the jet lag and whichever drug they had used on her the day before.

_Well, I've done worse. In all honesty, I've had much worse drunk sex. I've had much worse sex, period. And I can't afford to think of it right now. First, breakfast, and then I'll look for the back door to this place._

Still wrapped in a towel, she found her way to the cathedral-sized kitchen (bigger than her flat in Stuttgart) and was relieved to see that the refrigerator was fully stocked. She had wondered if Asgardian gods needed to eat, and if Loki had taken her human needs into account.

After two cups of tea and a generous serving of eggs and toast, she was feeling almost optimist. The next thing she did was a treasure hunt for her clothes, scattered between the living room and the bedroom. They were undamaged but terribly wrinkly and stained with sweat, so she remained in the towel while she fished her shoes from under a brocade ottoman.

The house was definitely a fortress in the middle of nowhere. Probably borrowed or taken by force from someone... Someone with a lot of money, many reasons to hide away from civilization and a good amount of awful taste, evidenced by the white wall-to-wall carpet on the floor of several rooms, the horrendous fireplace that occupied an entire wall of the living room, the bubblegum pink curtains, the dubious pieces of "art" that covered every available surface, and the style of the clothes she found in the walk-in closet.

There had been a woman living there before, that was clear, and every single drawer and rack was full of expensive clothes. Unfortunately, they looked like the dream of a vaudeville gangster's girlfriend: everything was pink, leopard patterned or covered in sequins. All the shoes, in matching colors, were drag queen high and two sizes bigger than her feet. But many of the clothes looked new, and at least some of them seemed to be her size; in the bottom drawers she saw a few wearable things, and finally decided for the simplest black dress she could find.

_I'm sure this was what she wore to the mobsters' funerals. Whoever "she" was, the poor thing had the fashion taste of a color blind clown._

The look for an escape route proved to be useless: the only entrance, a security door, was firmly locked from the outside. It was apparently made of steel and as thick as a safe door, so there was no point in trying anyway. The windows only opened a fraction of an inch, and the double glass looked bulletproof. In a sudden Scarlett O'Hara moment she threw a big marble ashtray against one of the windows, without even chipping it. The whole place was a very expensive and flashy version of a panic room. A panic castle. It was impossible to escape or even ask for help, there was no sign of a telephone anywhere, and her own mobile phone was completely dead.

The exploration of the whole house took her a couple of hours, and after that she found herself back in the living room. One of its walls was covered in book shelves, and most of the books seemed to be there just for decoration purposes, but there were a few readable ones. She found an old and battered volume of _The Count of Monte Cristo_ and started reading. After five minutes, Leah realized she had been going over the same line over and over and she threw the book to the floor, frustrated.

_He will get bored of me in a week! I only have to stay alive and sane, and until then... Here's to the girls who play smart._

With this small hope in mind, she returned to the kitchen and started cooking. It was an unlikely hobby that she didn't usually have time to practise, but she was itching for something to do. Something that could keep her from thinking, from analyzing the situation, from admitting to herself that she was in the hands of a real deity with little patience and less boundaries.

After a few hours of frantic cooking activity two quiches, one batch of lasagna and several ramekins of chocolate mousse were neatly displayed on the counter, and Leah stood in the middle of the kitchen with a glass of wine in her hand. Somber thoughts had slowly crept back into her mind, and she found herself looking at the door and wondering what would be worse, having Loki come back soon or being alone for days in that wretched house.

"I see you have kept yourself busy." Loki's sudden arrival startled Leah, and she almost dropped the glass.

"If you're going to appear out of the blue like that, please give me some clue first. You almost gave me a heart attack."

He was wearing a black and green leather outfit that would have looked ridiculous on anyone else, but it suited him somehow. He took the glass from Leah's hand and tasted the wine. "I was observing you."

"You were studying me. I am not a book, or a blueprint", she said, frowning.

"No, you are proving to be much more interesting than that so far." He handed her the glass back, held her chin and gave her a small peck on the lips. "Where does this culinary interest come from?"

"I've always liked cooking. When I was in high school I actually considered becoming a chef... before getting a scholarship for Columbia." She gave a nostalgic look at the _quiche lorraine_ for a moment. "It feels like a million years ago. Anyway, I don't even know if you eat."

"I may not be human, but our races are... compatible enough for me to eat human food."

"Yes, I kind of figured out the compatibility part yesterday night."

"Always a witty remark on those lips." He leaned over her for another kiss. "I like that on you, but be careful not to go too far with the sarcasm."

"My sarcasm and I are only going from here to the dining room table", she said, turning towards the counter and putting the dishes on a tray.

Loki let out a small smirk and held the door for her, tilting his head in a mockery of a bow. "After you."

* * *

_Reviews are always welcome. Tell me what you think!_


	5. The Night is the Best Time of the Day

**Chapter 5: The Night is the Best Time of the Day**

_(Warnings for this chapter: threats of physical violence, a bit of blood drawing.)_

Dinner started in a more or less civilized way. Loki found no fault with the food, and they ate in an uncomfortable silence for a few minutes, until Leah's patience reached its limit. The sun had just set, and the proximity of the night made her nervous. Besides, after a very solitary day she needed conversation, even if it was with him.

"I suppose I should be asking you about your day, but, considering that you're trying to take over the world, I'm not sure I want to know."

"If everything goes according to my designs, I will tell you... at some point."

"If everything doesn't go the way you're planning it, I will end up in prison for accessory to world invasion in the first degree. What will happen if you succeed is a mystery to me... unless you want me to hold a position in your new government", she said, finally looking up from her plate.

"There are several positions I would like you very much to hold... but not exactly in the government", he replied, licking his lips and looking intently at her.

_Dirty innuendo? This is definitely a step forward._

"Remember to take my qualifications into account. I'm a lawyer, not an Olympic gymnast", she whispered, half smiling.

"If I had any intentions to harm you, I would have done so already."

"That's easy for you to say, you're the invulnerable one."

"Are you still afraid of me?"

Leah let out a surprised laugh. "_Afraid_ is a gross understatement. I've been in a state of on-and-off terror for the last three days."

"And yet you have not shed a single tear since I brought you here. I thought your kind, especially women, was quite adept at crying."

"I haven't cried since two thousand and eight. That doesn't mean I don't feel scared, just that I choose not to show it. I'm sparing you the embarrassment and myself the humiliation of drowning in a pool of tears every time I remember that I'm a continent away from home, in the middle of a forest, held against my will by someone who claims, with a great deal of plausibility, to be an alien god from another dimensional plane."

Now it was Loki's turn to look surprised. "I commend your ability to keep a cold mind."

_Not as cold as I would like, unfortunately. And I hope you never realize that. _

"Look, I'm not used to the damsel in distress thing. That sarcasm that you appreciate so much is my defense mechanism when I'm scared, and I'm using it a lot lately because of you. It's all right, it will pass. But sometimes it's really hard to pretend this situation is normal... Do you want a bit of chocolate mousse?"

"I appreciate your sincerity above all things. And the mousse looks delicious."

Leah got up and placed one of the ramekins in front of him. Before she could return to her seat Loki grabbed her hand and turned it around, placing a small, wet kiss on the pulse point inside her wrist. She automatically tensed to his touch, but he didn't let go of her hand.

"These hands are destined to better activities than cooking, even if it is in my honor."

"Thank you. You're not exactly unskilled in the manual abilities department, if my memory doesn't fail me."

"You have yet to experience the full extent of my abilities. Yesterday night our moments together were quite... hasty, but tonight I intend to keep you awake for several hours." Another kiss, this time on her palm.

"Is that a promise or a threat?"

_When this thing ends I'm going to send an article to Vogue about the best way to flirt with a god. I'll probably get an award for it._

Loki laughed as he ran his thumb over her palm. "You look like a filly about to bolt. As long as you refrain from doing anything stupid, you are safe with me, Leah. I wish I could make you understand that."

"I'd really appreciate it if you stopped comparing me to frightened animals."

"And I do not like seeing you so unsettled."

"Unsettled? Of course I am freaking unsettled. Because, in all my life, I've never met a man I couldn't understand, until you. Because you make me feel small, threatened and powerless, and I hate that." She recovered her hand and paced nervously across the room before turning to face him again. "And the thing I still don't understand is why. Why me, of all the women in the planet? I mean, I'm not exactly homely, but my face won't launch a thousand ships. And I'm thirty-three years old. I _look_ thirty-three years old... Well, maybe a couple less, but that's not the point."

_The point is that I want you more with every passing hour, in spite of myself._

Loki took a sip of his wine and reclined in his chair. "Your age is irrelevant to me, and I am sure those thousand ships you speak of did not really sail because of a woman's face. Come back here, dinner is not over."

She walked back to the table and sat down, dragging her chair closer to his. "You always look at me like a cat at a mousehole. I know that look, because I'm used to being the cat, and I detest it."

"Who is making animal analogies now?" he sneered. "Yesterday I thought you talked too much. I am starting to ponder if the real problem is that you think too much. But I am interested in hearing more about your life."

"If you wanted a quiet woman you should have kidnapped a librarian... Ask away."

"That man who was with you at your office. Is he your lover?" There was the tiniest amount of jealousy in his voice. Just a bit, but it sounded quite scary, and Leah was relieved to be able to tell the absolute truth about the affair.

"Mark? No, not anymore. We were together for a while, until a vacant opened for a partner. He is the son of one of the firm's founders and I didn't want to be labeled as the boss' girlfriend, so I left him. For the last six months all our relationship has been strictly professional."

"He seemed very interested in you."

"Well, he's been trying to get back between my legs lately."

"I cannot say that I blame him. So you abandoned him, just like that."

"There was never a huge amount of feelings involved", she said, almost apologetically. "If it's any consolation, now that I've disappeared he must have taken over the work that I spent several months planning. The little shit."

Loki leant forward on the table, lacing his fingers together. "You mentioned a place called Columbia. Tell me more about it."

"_In lumine tuo videbimus lumen_. That's my university. Ivy League, which probably won't mean anything to you but it translates to 'an awfully hard place to get into'. I managed to get a scholarship thanks to a combination of good grades and good luck... but I'm going through the story backwards." She finished the last spoonful of her chocolate mousse and dropped the spoon on the table with a sigh. "If we had a violinist here, now would be the perfect moment to make him play a very sad melody, full of angst and slightly out of tune: I grew up in a shitty town called Newark, not very far from here, with a careless mother that lived on public benefits and a consecutive series of losers that she called her boyfriends."

"What happened to your father?"

"He wasn't around anymore when I was born. Fortunately for me, I managed to get through my childhood with a minimum of psychological traumas, and by the time I reached high school my teachers were so concerned about my sad situation at home that they wrote me the most glowing recommendation letters. Growing up in a toxic environment, overcoming adversity, and so on. I left home for Columbia at the usual age of eighteen, busted my ass through college and Law School working several jobs in addition to class, and never returned to Newark. My mother died during my second year of college, so there was nothing left for me there anyway."

Loki frowned. "What did your mother die of?"

"A destroyed liver." She looked at her empty wine glass and slid her fingers over the polished surface, frowning and staring at the object with contempt. "I don't want to talk about that, anyway", she said, pushing her chair back from the table and heading for the bar with quick steps. Not quick enough, though. Loki darted towards her with inhuman speed, and his cool fingers wrapped around her arm before she could reach her destination.

"Come here. You are not getting drunk tonight."

"But I _really_ like you when I'm drunk", she said, pouting.

"That puerile insolence is very unbecoming of you. I suggest that you abandon that attitude."

"One cocktail. To get in the mood."

"No." He gripped her arm tighter, drawing her close to him.

"Fine. Let me take the dishes to the kitchen."

_And finish the wine bottle while I'm there, at least. It's not strong but it will have to do._

"I know you are capable of coming up with a hundred excuses to get away from me. And I will stop you a hundred times. The dishes can wait, everything else can wait. I want you now."

The kiss was slow, almost unbearably so. Loki caught her bottom lip between his teeth, nibbling delicately. He tasted like Bordeaux wine and dark chocolate, and his lips lingered over hers for a while, sending a sweet warmth down her limbs. She placed a hand on his chest, just like she had done the night before, but this time his heartbeat was slower and his movements more restrained.

Loki let his hand creep up her back, reaching the one point at the nape of her neck that he knew would make her shiver. And shiver she did, trying to react as little as possible but still knowing that it would be useless. There was no Dutch courage in her this time, nothing to numb the dreadful feeling of want.

_Motherfucker. If the President of Earth was a woman and he touched her like this, he'd be crowned king of the world in ten minutes._

Leah lowered a hand to his crotch, looking for a quick, hurried fuck, but he guided her hand back to his chest.

His wicked smile was there again, teasing her, mocking her attempt to control the situation. "As I told you a moment ago, we have all night, Leah. There is no need to hurry, you are not going anywhere."

"Thank you for reminding me that I'm your prisoner."

"I do not take prisoners. You are my guest." He wrapped an arm around her smoothly, his free hand cupping her cheek.

"I'm afraid your sense of hospitality is more than a little distorted. If you treat all your guests like this, your parties must be the stuff of legends."

"If you talk to all your lovers like that, their ears must buzz for days on end", he said, placing a finger over her lips.

She tried to speak, but his mouth was over hers before she could say anything.

_I'm guessing I'll have to get used to not having the last word ever again._

Loki spun her around so she was facing the window, and Leah felt his lips on the back of her neck, kissing, licking. She shuddered when his mouth lingered at the sensitive spot between her neck and her shoulder. One of his hands was tangled in her hair, making her arch her neck to give him better access, and the other crawled under the skirt of her dress, tugging at the fabric.

"Don't destroy my dress, it's the only decent thing I found in that monstrosity of a closet", she said, turning around to face him.

"I will take care of that tomorrow. You will not wear anything that belongs to another woman", he whispered against her lips before his mouth crashed fully upon hers.

This time the force of the kiss made her stumble. Loki swung her off her feet into his arms and headed for the bedroom. Before they could reach the bed she felt the zipper of her dress glide down. Soon her dress and bra were on the floor and his hands were on her again, teasing and caressing, but never going below her waist.

"I won't be unfairly naked for the second night in a row while you're still wearing an entire Renaissance Fair's worth of clothes", she said.

"Undress me, then", he laughed, taking a step back and standing beside the bed, with his arms outstretched to the sides.

A bit unsure of where to begin, she struggled to push off his leather coat until it pooled on the floor. He didn't move, didn't speak, didn't try to touch her even once, letting her fumble with the vambraces, shoulder guards, belts, tunic, boots... When he stood before her wearing just his leather trousers, Leah sat on the edge of the bed and waited.

Loki frowned and took a step towards her. "You are not finished."

Without saying a word, Leah drew her hand across the lean muscles of his abdomen, tracing the shapes on his cool skin. She finally found the laces of his trousers and started undoing them, inch by inch. Taking special care not to touch his growing hardness underneath, despite being perfectly aware of Loki's quickening breath. She slid the garment down his legs and only then she started touching him, lazily, using only the tips of her fingers to draw feather-light trails along his length.

_You're not the only one with abilities to show off, mister._

She looked up when her attentions were rudely interrupted by the pressure of a hand on the back of her neck.

"Tease." Loki was looking at her with feverish eyes, his lips parted in a crooked smile. "Do I have to drag you to your knees, or will you get down there willingly, like you did in Stuttgart?"

"You promised me several hours. I'm just making time the best way I can..." she said, sliding from the bed to the floor and stroking him a few times before taking him in her mouth at last. She slid her hands up his thighs while her mouth inched down his length, her motions as slow as she could manage. Licking the tip, running her tongue along the underside before wrapping her lips fully around him in a rhythmical motion that she knew would send him over the edge in a minute.

She heard Loki curse (at least it sounded like a curse) in a language she didn't understand. His hips jerked forward and he yanked her by the hair, abruptly, pulling her away from him before she could finish.

"Ouch! If that's all you can handle, I'm going to start questioning your divinity", she said, with her head immobilized in his grip.

Loki relaxed the grasp on her hair a little. "My divinity is out of question, but the things you are doing with that mouth are becoming quite dangerous... and I do not mean the witty remarks." He lifted her up from her kneeling position and pushed her on the bed, hovering over her, lightly tracing her bottom lip with his tongue and kissing his way down her body. His lips met her stomach and lingered there for a moment before taking the top of her knickers between his teeth and dragging them down, painstakingly slowly.

_If he's half as good with that tongue as he is with his hands, I'm doomed._

Leah bit her lip and let out a reluctant sigh. Her loins were on fire, and the vision of the god's head between her legs wasn't exactly helping. After nuzzling the inside of her thighs for a moment he flicked his tongue against her folds once, twice, teasing her with slow and calculated movements, enjoying her wetness. She gasped, caught in a breathless moment, and tried to push her hips towards him, but he had her firmly grasped and she couldn't move. Loki let out a moan against her sex that vibrated through her being, making her hair stand on end. She wanted... no, she needed him inside so much that her whole body ached.

Mercifully, after what looked like a very short moment he stopped and rolled on his back, pulling Leah towards him and making her straddle him. His hands moved down her back, holding her hips and guiding her down onto him until he was buried to the hilt. She whimpered, giving herself time to get used to the invasion of her body before starting a screwing motion.

Something was stirring inside of her, something not completely physical. She could feel her body going slack from the mounting pleasure. Her pretense of disconnection between physique and mind was being shattered, crumbled under the expert touch of Loki's hands on her skin. His fingers dug on her hips, pushing her further down against his hardness with each thrust, until he sat up and slipped one hand between their bodies, his long fingers reaching down to caress her core. Then he drew her into a kiss, open-mouthed and messy, panting and muttering things that she didn't hear because the sound of her own heart was too loud.

She had been so sure of herself when she had knelt before him... The plan had been simple, driving him crazy with her mouth and cutting the moment short. In, out, in, out, and _voilá_ happy ending. It should have been just like the night before... Pant, moan, whimper, moan, ragged breath, and in the end the trickster would be tricked. But the lies that a person tells herself have a limit, and when Loki pressed his forehead to hers and her eyes locked with his burning gaze that limit was trespassed and she forgot everything. Because before, before he had claimed her body without touching her mind, but this time the god inside her was reaching places way beyond her control.

This time she felt it coming from afar. An orgasm, a real one, unlike the one she had faked the night before. She desperately tried to take her mind elsewhere, think of something gross and off-putting, but the wave was already too high to ride. Her vision blurred and her world exploded while she climaxed in relative silence, with just a quiet sobbing noise that she tried to conceal clutching the god's shoulders, hiding her face in his neck. Loki relaxed the rhythm of his thrusts for a second, and then he stopped abruptly.

_Damn._

He flipped her over, pushing her body down on the mattress. Leah felt the pressure of Loki's chest on top of hers and sensed all air leave her lungs. His hand curled around her throat, and she had no other choice than to look at him.

"Lying bitch", he spat between his clenched teeth. He lowered his head and Leah felt a sharp pain halfway between neck and shoulder, right on the spot where he had kissed her so carefully before. He bit harder and a small trickle of blood slid down her skin, falling on the white sheet.

She was paralyzed, with her tongue stuck to the roof of her mouth, waiting for the moment when the pressure over her throat would increase, but it didn't happen. He kept his icy eyes fixed on her, trembling with rage, although his expression was more hurt than angry. She realized that she felt a bit sorry for him, and that thought scared her even more.

_You're feeling pity for the man that's going to kill you? That's a new low, stupid._

"Give me one reason, one simple reason not to break your neck here and now." There was pain in Loki's voice, as if he felt he had been betrayed. "Have I not been completely honest with you? Have I mistreated you in any way?"

"You are now", she croaked, feebly. He released the grip on her neck, but she was still immobilized under his weight.

"What a pretty little show you put on for me yesterday! Every moment of last night, every moment of tonight has been a lie. Your kisses were a mockery and your mind has been worlds apart from here while your body was in my bed. I trusted you and you lied to me! Why?" There were tears in his eyes now, and one of them fell on Leah's cheek as he spoke.

"Because I'm a coward, that's why! I should have stood against you in Stuttgart. I should have resisted when you brought me here, I should have forced you to kill me. But I went with my self-preservation instinct, I yielded to save my ass!" She felt tears, her own, threatening to appear in her eyes, but she blinked to fight them. "My mind and my pleasure were the only things I could keep from you... but apparently I can't even do that anymore."

"Do you really want to know why I brought you here, Leah? Because I thought that, in a way, we were alike. We are both selfish and conceited; we see the darkness of the world and thrive in it. I thought you, among all the pathetic creatures that inhabit your world, would be willing to see that."

She sighed and let her head fall limp again on the pillow. "Maybe you're right. Maybe we are more alike than I wanted to admit, and now I'll end up dead for fucking everything up." She raised one hand to his face, touching the wet trail on his cheek first and then the small smudge of blood on his lips. Loki flinched, but didn't pull away.

"I have never seen a creature as stubborn as you." He held her chin in his hand and frowned at her. "You are not even considering the possibility of pleading for your life. Of making peace with your God and begging me for forgiveness."

"I don't know if I can make peace with him... I'm afraid I've hurt him worse than he could hurt me." Their faces were just an inch away now, and she slowly tilted her head up and pressed her lips to his. A trace of metallic taste hit her tongue, strange but not entirely unpleasant. Loki had his eyes closed and didn't move at first; after a moment he balanced his weight on his forearms, still hovering over her but releasing a bit of the pressure of his body on hers.

"Will I ever hear an apology from these lips, woman?" He said, brushing his thumb over her mouth.

"I'm sorry."

"It took you long enough."

"For what it's worth, I didn't think you would care, and besides..." Loki covered her mouth with his hand before she could finish, his eyes hard and arrogant again.

"Listen to me very carefully, because I will say this only once." His voice was husky and cold, and there was something unnerving in that deadly quietness. "The only sounds I want to hear from you for the rest of the night are moans, whimpers and the occasional screaming of my name. No more sass, no more arguments, no more witty banter. Not. One. Word. You denied me your pleasure once, and before you leave this bed I will reclaim it a dozen times. Have I made myself clear?"

Leah nodded in silence, and then a soft and swirling darkness closed around her. Loki held her so tight that it almost hurt, feasting on her flesh, burying himself in her, lifting her off the bed with each thrust. His lips upon her were all she could feel, his piercing eyes all she could see. He was darkness and she was darkness and every time her climax came again she screamed, wailing like a banshee, while her reality shattered in a thousand pieces.

Loki had defeated her.


	6. The Little Things You Do Together

_Author's note: Thank you to all the people who has left me reviews so far! This is my first multi-chapter story, and I'm really glad to know it's working._

**May 19. The Catskills.**

Leah woke up at noon. Disoriented, melodramatically sprawled on the bed under a wrinkled sheet, and wondering if she would be able to cross her legs ever again. The bite on her shoulder hurt, not too much but there was an unpleasant sensation around the broken skin. All her muscles were sore, as if she had run a marathon.

_Well, it turns out you __**can **__have too much of a good thing. _

She didn't even try to move. She just lay there, in the dim light, staring at the ceiling, until she felt the sheet slide slowly from her body. Out of instinct, she reached for it and grabbed it just as it went past her thighs, sitting up in the process. Loki was crouched at the end of the bed, like a predator ready to pounce on her, and there was one of those wicked little smiles on his face.

"Ah, the lady awakes."

"Have you been stalking me while I slept?" Her voice was little more than a hoarse whisper. She remembered herself screaming to the top of her lungs the night before, and mentally added her vocal chords to the list of body parts that weren't exactly functioning at top capacity.

"I like how peaceful you look while you sleep. And how _quiet_", he added with a smirk.

"Yesterday you said you liked my conversation. Have you changed your mind about the convenience of exchanging me for a blonde, brainless bimbo? Someone who would only say _Yes, my Lord_ and _No, my Lord_ until you die of boredom?" she said, tugging on the sheet and finally managing to get it back and cover herself.

"Right now I would not change you for any other woman in the universe."

She frowned. "I thought you were angry with me."

"I was. But today is another day, and you have done enough penance." He sat beside her on the edge of the bed and brushed his fingers over her thigh, stroking lightly upwards, before resting a hand on her hip. He wasn't smiling anymore. "Look at me, Leah."

_And they say women have mood swings... I wish I knew what he's thinking, just once._

"I want you to swear that you will not keep anything from me again. Every thought that goes through your mind, every inch of your skin, every bit of air you breathe belongs to me."

"I don't understand why..."

"You do not need to understand." His voice was practically a growl and his fingers moved to the back of her neck, digging into her skin with just the right amount of force to send goosebumps down her spine. "You are mine."

"Sorry, but that sounds medieval."

"I do not care how it sounds."

"But if you want the absolute truth from me, you know that my mind doesn't work that way. That the idea of... submitting like that to someone else is something I can't stand." She sighed and reached for his hand. Why was his skin always so cold? "Look, I faked an orgasm. Once. One single, stupid time. I had my reasons, however selfish or wrong they were. And I already said I'm sorry."

"You are sorry because you got caught. If you saw yourself in the same situation again..."

"... yes, I would probably do the same thing."

Loki let out an exasperated grunt. "Is there a heart beating beneath those exquisite breasts, or have I been unlucky enough to get the only heartless woman on all Midgard?"

"What do you want with my heart now? The... agreement we had was to share your bed, and I only agreed to that under blackmail and moderately drunk. Now you suddenly ask for more, for an intimacy that I can't give you."

"That you do not want to give me." The look in his eyes was feverish, hungered.

"I just don't understand why it's so important to you."

His lips tensed for a moment, and he pressed his forehead to hers. "I want both your mind _and_ your heart. I want you to accept that you belong to me, and that is all you need to know."

"We had an agreement."

"I am changing it." Before she could think of an answer, he stood up. "Come to the other room, I have something for you. Do not get dressed."

_Do not get dressed? I hope the surprise isn't a sexy maid uniform. Things are already twisted enough without any kinky stuff._

She scurried out of bed as steadily as she could, wrapping the sheet around her, and followed Loki to the living room. The dirty dishes had disappeared from the table, and there were several boxes and shopping bags scattered all around the floor and the chairs.

"My memories of last night may be blurred, but I don't remember crawling out of bed and cleaning the dinner table. And I really can't picture you doing the dishes."

"Do not worry about that. If you enjoy cooking, you can keep doing it; the rest will be taken care of."

"Do you have an invisible housekeeper? Because that wouldn't be half creepy."

"It amazes me how you lose yourself in mundane matters when you should be looking at bigger things." He snickered and signaled at the boxes. "Those are for you."

Tying the sheet around her like an improvised sarong, Leah opened one of the shopping bags. Inside it there was a green silk cocktail dress. The box next to her contained two pairs of patent pumps. She went through the rest of the bags, revealing a few more dresses of different lengths and materials, several pairs of lace underwear, and finally a black wool cape. Everything was new, expensive, surprisingly elegant, and, except for one or two black items, everything fell within a color range that went from forest green to a deep dark emerald.

_Maybe this isn't the best time to tell him that I never wear green because it clashes with my skintone._

She sat on the carpet and remained in silence for a while, dumbfounded, running her hands over the soft fabric of the cape. When she turned around to look at Loki she saw he was holding a square box with a bottle of perfume in it. Green, of course. He offered it to Leah with a mute gesture and an eager look in his eyes. He was clearly expecting some kind of answer from her, so she stood up and opened the box.

"Green." It seemed the only word her brain was able to process. "I mean... Poison by Dior. Wow. I hope it's not a metaphor for anything."

"I have been compared to a snake before. It seemed... appropriate."

"Thank you." She wasn't sure how to express gratitude, if at all. Showering her with gifts after what had transpired the night before was an unexpected move on his part. And accepting those gifts was sort of agreeing to prostitute herself further, but not accepting them didn't seem to be a viable option. She stood on her tiptoes to kiss his cheek, but he suddenly moved and captured her lips in a demanding kiss while his hand wandered under the sheet. Leah found herself responding with more enthusiasm than she should to his insistent caresses.

"I... I should try those on. And make something for breakfast... brunch. Whatever meal is right for this time of day", she whispered when he finally let her go. "Don't you have to go plan an invasion, or something?"

"Not today, kitten. I am staying here all day."

"I live for the moment you run out of animals to compare me with."

"And I live for the moment you actually are at a loss for words", he remarked while she gathered the pile of clothes and disappeared towards the bedroom.

After taking a quick shower, and trying and discarding several outfits, Leah chose a simple knitted dress. A black one, because a part of her was still resenting all that green that had been shoved upon her, and she had always felt comfortable in black. Once in the kitchen, she checked the contents of the fridge and saw that the same invisible hand that had cleaned up after dinner had also replenished the groceries, and that there were two bottles of chilled white wine on the top tier. She poured herself a glass while she cut the vegetables, and then another while she waited for the oven to heat.

She was in a strange mood; a mix of sorry and grateful, sulky and nervous. Her strategy of "wait and see what happens" was working, to a point. On the other hand, she now knew how little was necessary to provoke the god's anger, and that was definitely an experience not to be repeated.

_I can't think about this now or I'll go insane. I could do worse than being fucked proper and showered with designer clothes... let's concentrate on that._

Holding on to that thought, she managed to keep her mind on the food preparation for a while. An hour (and half a bottle of wine) later, she looked almost proudly at the freshly made pot of tomato soup on the stove, and the casserole of macaroni and cheese in the oven; she was definitely feeling a little better.

_All I'm cooking since I arrived here is comfort food. Freud would have a field day with this._

When she returned to the living room she found Loki curled up on the couch with a book in his hand. He was examining the leather binding, leafing through the pages with a puzzled expression. It was _The Count of Monte Cristo,_ the same old book that she had started reading, and later had discarded on the floor, the day before. He beckoned her to his side with a vague gesture.

"Do you know this book?"

"I've read it. Several times, in fact. It's a really good one."

"I am afraid I do not trust your Midgardian standards for _goodness_. What is it about?"

"People usually read the book to find out."

"I want to be sure it is worth my time. Tell me."

"Fine", she said, sitting close to him and snatching the book from his hands. "It's a tale of revenge... a brilliant one, if you ask me. A young man is betrayed by his close friends an imprisoned for many years. After he escapes, he plots a very complicated plan to ruin the life of the men who destroyed his happiness... And I'm not telling you the ending; you'll have to read it for yourself."

"Revenge. That is a mighty subject to write about", he mused. "As long as this Midgardian author has addressed it well."

"There's not much you can do about it if he didn't... He's been dead for almost one hundred and fifty years."

"We will see... Read it to me", he said, reclining on the sofa and pulling Leah to his lap.

"You can't be serious. In case you haven't noticed, I'm hoarse as a crow. And this is five hundred pages long." She squirmed, but his arm was like a steel grip around her waist.

"That is not important. Read." He didn't raise his voice to command. If anything, it sounded softer than before. Leah shifted on his lap trying to find a comfortable position, kicked off her shoes and started reading.

_"Chapter 1. Marseilles. On the 24th of February, 1810, the look-out at Notre-Dame de la Garde signalled the three-master, the Pharaon from Smyrna, Trieste, and Naples. As usual, a pilot put off immediately, and rounding the Chateau d'If, got on board the vessel between Cape Morgion and Rion island..."_

* * *

"Leah, wake up."

"Mmh?" She looked at her watch and grunted, stretching on the couch. She clearly remembered starting chapter ten, but she couldn't quite mark the moment when she had dozed off. Loki was now sitting on the carpet and, judging by the position of the bookmark, he had finished the rest of the novel in less than four hours.

"Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the middle-of-the-forest six PM book club. Tonight, a classic tale of treason and revenge has been devoured by one of the most brilliant minds in the known universe."

"I would hate to cover that lovely mouth of yours, but you are a handful of words away from being gagged."

She pouted and stuck her tongue at him.

"And stop behaving like a child."

"I can't behave like an adult if you don't let me." She leaned towards him and ran a hand through his hair. "Funny."

"What is funny?"

"When I was in college, I swore to myself I'd never be with a guy with prettier hair than me. It was a tough call, in the late nineties, with all the boys sporting those long, blond grunge manes. And look at me now... you're making me go back on my principles."

"I am glad to hear that. Maybe you never had any principles to lose."

"Oh, but I did, back then. I was the most self-righteous, bookwormish, well behaved freshman in all Columbia. You should have seen me later, during Law School... I was absolutely sure I was going to be the next bloody Atticus Finch. Defending the innocent and the poor against the evil corporations."

Loki lifted an eyebrow. "What happened to you?"

"During my first year out of Law School I started working on a public interest law firm in Boston, assisting underrepresented people and lost causes in general. There was this very important employment discrimination case I wanted to win at any cost... I was ready for anything they could throw at me; I researched all relevant cases, consulted with several of my colleagues, worked on my statements for weeks as if the fate of the whole world depended on them."

"And you lost your case."

"More than that. I was brilliant, focused, I was full of purpose, and they thrashed me at court. Completely and utterly thrashed. The other part had a team of lawyers that looked like the Apocalypse riders, and my clients never stood a chance. I remember going back to the office after the trial, getting drunk on my own and falling asleep on my desk, hating myself for not being able to help those people. And then... I got a call, later that same night, from one of the Apocalypse guys. He wanted to hire me for his firm. I guess he saw something in me that I hadn't noticed... and he must have been right, because I accepted. I was so frustrated with my job, and so tired! Tired of the long hours working in a crappy office with no money, no resources and no prospects except for a lot more underpaid work. So I took a leap and changed sides."

"You made a decision, you chose a better future for yourself."

"And now I work for the same evil guys that I despised so much before. The funny thing is... I'm starting to see a pattern. When I accepted the offer from U&M I was desperate, exhausted and tipsy. And when you brought me here and I agreed to be your personal fuck doll I was exactly in the same state."

"Do not call yourself that."

"Then what? Whore? Plaything? Pet...? What am I exactly in your grand scheme? What do you want me to be?"

Loki held her face in his hands. "I already told you, I want everything. I want you to give yourself to me completely, without any reservations. To trust me with your life and your soul. There may be a name for that, but it is not any of those you just implied."

"Loki..."

He blinked, surprised. "Finally. Do you realize this is the first time you have pronounced my name?"

"I screamed it a couple of times yesterday night. At least I think I did."

"You did. Ever so beautifully, but you were not in full possession of your mental faculties yesterday night."

"And whose fault was that?"

"Why must every conversation with you be a fight, Leah? Why is so hard for you to just do what I want?"

"You were the one who didn't want a mindless body. Well, here I am, a body with a voice. Sometimes this voice is going to say things you won't like... and I think you want me exactly for that reason. Because if every word that came out of me was _Yes, Loki_ or _As you wish, Loki_... you wouldn't want me anymore. For some reason I can't understand, you enjoy the fight."

Loki laughed, and Leah instinctively moved back to the far end of the couch. His laughter was slightly scarier than his anger. But then he sat close to her again and pressed a kiss to the side of her neck. "I am enjoying the fight... within reasonable limits. But be careful not to test my patience beyond those limits. You do not want to know what lies beyond them. Do not challenge me."

"I'm trying really hard not to." She burrowed into his arms, reluctantly at first, and rested her head against his chest. There was something in the slow pace of his heartbeat that always made her lose all her resolve. "I told you what happened to me. Now, can we talk about what happened to _you_?"

"What do you mean?" Loki stiffened, and his eyes showed the usual hard, cold stare again.

"I'm not the only one of us who has hated herself at some point. I'm not the only one who's damaged", she said, in a trembling voice. "You say you want to invade this world, but what I saw in Stuttgart was a man who wanted to be worshipped. Admired."

"A god."

"Whatever. And then there's me. You say I'm here just to be fucked, but after just two days you want more. You threaten me with violence and right after that you cover me in gifts. Something is eating up your mind. I'm not an expert in psychology, but it's not hard to see that something happened to you, at some point in your life, and you're sort of overcompensating for it."

"My motivations are none of your concern. You speak of things you know nothing about, and it is best for you that you remain that way." He detached himself from her. "You have not eaten today. Get the dinner ready."

"Fine, have it your way." Leah let out an annoyed sigh. "Shall I get dressed for dinner? It's a pity that some of those gowns are so lovely when no one but you is going to see them."

"As a matter of fact, someone will. I have something to do in the city tomorrow, and you will come with me." He paused to let the news sink in Leah's brain. "To New York."

"Taking the pet for a walk? Do you think I'll be trained enough to behave in public without embarrassing you?"

He brought her face close to his and touched his lips to hers for a brief instant. "I know you will."


	7. The Ladies Who Lunch

**Chapter 7: The Ladies Who Lunch**

_Warnings for this chapter: language and some violence._

**May 20. New York.**

The typically jammed succession of cars that circulated slowly through the congested Manhattan streets was momentarily disrupted when a procession of three black vehicles with tinted windows took a turn to the right on the corner of Park Avenue and 53rd street.

The two passengers of the middle car were not on very amicable terms. Loki had his eyes closed and had not said a word to Leah, or to the driver, during the hour and a half trip from the Catskill Mountains to Manhattan. Leah, on her part, was also silent and sulky. Despite all that, she couldn't help smiling when she looked out of the window and saw Central Park to their right. She liked big cities, and New York had always been one of her favorites.

"I don't suppose we can stop for a walk in the park", she joked, trying to pull Loki from his obstinate silence.

"That may be the stupidest question you have asked me since we met." The answer was cold and cruel, but at least he was looking at her. "Have you changed your mind about our earlier argument?"

She looked away and shook her head. Argument? No, an argument implied a confrontation of two more or less equal sides, and that was never the case between her and Loki.

"I still don't see why do you want to parade me in front of SHIELD wearing your colors, as if I was a spoil of war."

"The war has not started yet. And this is just a visit, not an exhibition." He ran his fingertips over the bare skin of her arm. "If I wanted to parade you as a trophy in front of my enemies, perhaps I would make you wear nothing at all."

Leah closed her eyes and leaned her head against the headrest, remembering the brief quarrel that they'd had a few hours before.

_"I'm not wearing that dress!"_

_"Of course you are. I got it for you."_

_"Maybe you haven't noticed, but the décolletage on that thing is a bit distracting."_

_"It shows your shoulders. I have seen more of you at any given moment of these last days... in fact, I am seeing more of you right now."_

_"What it shows is every single bruise on my neck, not to mention that bite you gave me. Is that how you want people to see me, marked and branded as your property?"_

_"Enough! You will wear what I tell you to wear, even if I have to tie you down and put the dress on you by force. You have ten minutes."_

Loki had thrown the offending garment on the bed and stormed out of the room, slamming the door after him. She had stood like an inanimate object in the middle of the bedroom, in her lace underwear and satin slip, with her fists clenched and her breath ragging until her little bout of anger vanished and she could finally bring herself to the vanity and finish her makeup. To make things worse, the dress (a vintage Versace gown of dark green silk) was beautiful, almost a work of art. The problem was its significance, the meaning of being a part of his exhibition of power and the unavoidable feeling that she was, once again, losing a part of herself in the process.

She didn't open her eyes of move again until the driver finally stopped the car in front of an Art Decó building. The street appeared to be closed to the traffic, but the three cars were allowed to park right in front of the restaurant known as the Cub Room. The sidewalk was empty, except for half a dozen of bulky men in suits and sunglasses, obviously security guards of some kind.

One of them saw them coming and opened the door for them. The restaurant was small and classically decorated, with hardwood floors and crisp white tablecloths. There were more guards inside, a few of them visibly armed, along with several waiters and waitresses, all of them trying very hard not to show that they'd rather be barricaded behind the bar. Only one of the dozen tables was occupied, by two men who didn't seem too surprised to see that Loki had arrived with company. The god gave them a condescending look as he sat down.

"Fury. Stark." That was all he did to acknowledge them.

"Good evening, Miss Channing", said the man with the eyepatch. He looked intently into Leah's eyes, probably to see if they were an unusual shade of blue, if her mind was being controlled by Loki. She just nodded in his direction and sat down in silence, not knowing if the god would want her to speak with these people or not.

"I see you have taken your time to investigate my lovely companion", said Loki with a smirk. "You could have asked me instead, it would have saved you a waste of your resources."

"Miss Channing disappeared from her office in mysterious circumstances three days ago", answered the other man. "Knowing that you had made her acquaintance at you little German street show made SHIELD worry about her well-being. That's what the people on Earth do, Asgardian boy. They care about each other. Now, do you mind if I accompany the lady to the bar while you discuss your world domination threats with Fury?"

Loki gave the man one of his coldest glares. "If you knew what I am capable of you would not speak to me like that."

"I know exactly what you're capable of, and that's why I think you won't want her to hear certain things."

"Do not get her out of my sight. I will be watching you."

"I'm truly happy to see you again, too", mocked the man while he held the chair for Leah to stand up. The bar was only a few yards away, far enough to perceive the conversation between Loki and Colonel Fury only as a faint background noise. The man in the expensive Armani suit waved a hand to one of the waiters.

"Boy, bring a martini and a double scotch on the rocks, we're parched here. And keep them coming." He sat down on one of the bar stools and turned his back to the restaurant area. "So, how are you doing, Miss Channing?"

"I'm having the best week of my life", she said with a bitter laugh. "What do you think?"

"You're right, stupid question. I'm Tony Stark; you may not remember me, which in other circumstances I would find personally offending, but we've met before."

Leah let out a little sigh of relief when a very nervous waiter placed a dry martini in front of her. "I know we've met, but I don't recall exactly when or how."

"Five years ago, at a fundraising party in Boston. Your boss Fred Malcolm introduced us."

"Oh, yes! I remember now. You gave a very extravagant donation, stared at my ass for five minutes and then disappeared from the party with a Russian model."

"I considered testing the waters with you first, but you seemed much more interested in the mechanics of fundraising economics than in my humble person."

"Not really... I just thought you were a bit pompous."

"I'm glad to see that your tastes in men have changed since then."

"If that was a joke, you have the sense of humor of a nasty fifth grader", she said, holding her half-empty glass in mid-air.

_Maybe I'm going to need another martini... because I'm seriously wondering what would happen if I threw this one on Tony Stark's face._

"It was a very lame joke, sorry. Look, I've seen the footage of what happened in Stuttgart... I'm guessing it wasn't exactly your choice to leave everything behind and go on a little holiday with Mr. Real Power over there." He gulped his drink and pushed the empty glass towards the waiter. "Or was it?"

"If you're implying that I went with him on my own free will, you can kindly go fuck yourself, Mr. Stark", she answered between gritted teeth.

Tony leaned over the bar, with his suddenly serious eyes fixed in his glass of scotch. "Thank you. Now that we're past the pleasantries, I need you to tell me if you think that your life's in danger. Because, if it is, SHIELD has enough agents surrounding this building to carry out a rescue operation in less than two minutes."

"If you do that and something goes wrong, a lot of your people could die in less than two minutes."

"Don't give me that, Jersey girl. Anyone born on this planet is one of ours, and we're not going to leave one of ours in the hands of that alien rockstar wannabe."

"You know he's probably listening to all we're saying, right?"

"Probably, but I don't give a damn. We took him down once and we can do it again... although someone will have to redecorate the place after we're finished."

Leah really didn't know what to answer. The fact that SHIELD was willing to risk lives to rescue her hadn't crossed her mind before. Then something clicked: this wasn't about her, at least not specifically. "Of course, if you take Loki's most prized hostage away, it will be easier for you lot to overpower him without any collateral damage. And it's even possible that it will mess with his mind a little."

"I like the way your brain works", said Tony with a smirk. "When all of this is over, remind me to hire you for my legal team."

"Well, you can't be worse than the people I've been working for lately."

"I'm sure that cynic pessimism of yours is a fantastic way to make friends."

"This cynic pessimism is the only thing that..." Leah's witty remark died on her lips when a blonde waitress placed another martini glass in front of them, shoving the drink towards her with so much force than a few drops spilled on the bar.

"Your drink, ma'am." Three short, polite words, but in the tense atmosphere of the place they sounded like an insult.

_Now why is she looking at me as if I, instead of my dress, was the green one?_

"Thank you." Leah tried to dismiss the waitress with a head inclination, but the woman kept on staring at her. "May I ask what is so interesting about my face?"

"I was just wondering what exactly did you have to do to get that pretty dress", said the waitress, curtly.

Leah started drumming her fingers on the bar and gave the woman a fake half-smile. "That's nothing of your concern. Just bring me another drink in five minutes and don't expect me to leave you a tip."

The woman took half a step towards the end of the bar, but a moment later she was back, pretending to wipe the spilled drink with a napkin.

"Do you think of all the people he's killed while you suck him off?"

"What?"

"Ladies!" Out of the corner of her eye Leah saw Tony Stark's furrowed brow. He had raised a hand between the two women, asking for peace, but Leah was too incensed to stop.

"Let her speak, Mr. Stark. She obviously has very clear ideas about what other people should do with their lives." Maybe a good verbal fight, one she could actually _win_, was what she needed to lift her deflated spirits.

"I think you're disgusting. Spreading your legs for that maniac and bowing to his greatness... In exchange for what? Jewels, clothes? Will he make you his official royal slut if he conquers the planet?" The waitress was leaning over the bar, her face mere inches away from Leah's. In a few seconds, her veiled hostility had turned into full-blown hatred.

"If you ever come to be in my shoes, then and only then you'll be allowed to make assumptions about my life. Meanwhile, I suggest you mind your own business and go back to waiting tables for six bucks an hour, bitch." Leah was being purposely mean and she knew it, but she refused to make excuses, to admit the small pang of guilt she had felt, earlier that day, at the sight of her dolled up self in the vanity mirror.

"I hope they lock you up for life when all this is finished." The woman was practically spitting poison now. "I hope he gets tired of you and leaves you for dead on the side of a road after he finds himself another pretty face to fuck."

"Finally, we get to the interesting part! Is that what this is about? Do you want me to put your name on the list? Because if that's what you're aiming for, I don't think he likes the dumb trashy kind."

"I may be trashy but at least I'm earning my keep, not whoring myself for it."

Leah felt the blood pulse in her ears and a red-hot anger took over her; after several days of bottling up her feelings she almost welcomed the sensation. She wanted to jump the bar and scream at the waitress, pull her hair, unleash all her rage on her once and for all. She felt Tony Stark lay a hand on her forearm, silently asking her not to react, and then, only a fraction of a second later, she heard a noise, a piercing scream... that came from the blonde waitress.

No human being could have moved so fast, but somehow Loki had crossed the space between his table and the bar and was holding the woman by the neck, lifting her from the ground. There was death in his eyes, death and contempt, and before anyone could react he had thrown her against the opposite wall. Now it was Leah's turn to scream and she ran towards the god, almost tripping on the hem of her dress, launching herself between him and his victim and trying to hold him back.

"Loki, stop!" She shoved her hands against his chest and pushed in vain, attempting to make him notice her at least. He took another step towards the fallen woman and Leah clung to his neck, desperately trying to slow him, to make him listen. On the back of her mind she registered the sight of a dozen guns and assault rifles pointing at Loki. At both of them. "Loki, please!"

Maybe it was the _please_ what finally made the god lower his bloodshot eyes to her. Maybe it was something else. He slid his hands over Leah's arms, pulling her gently away from him.

"This woman has insulted you for the last time. I will not tolerate that behavior in my presence."

"Please!" She stood her ground in front of him, stubbornly holding the lapels of his suit and trying not to look at the squirming figure on the floor. "I've never asked you for anything, but please, do this for me! Don't harm her."

"If we were on Asgard she would already be dead. Why are you willing to speak up for someone who was shouting abuse at you a moment ago?"

"Just this time. For me. Please..." Leah's mind had stopped working, she couldn't even try to find the right words to appease Loki. She finally managed to trip on one of her heels and stumble, but he caught her in mid air before she fell.

"Fine. Just this time, I will let your misguided mercy stop my hand." Still with one hand on her waist he turned Leah around, making her face the corner where the other woman was leaning on the wall and whimpering. "Look at the lady, you whore, and thank her for saving your miserable life."

Leah suddenly felt as if her stomach had turned inside out; she instinctively tried to back away, but Loki had her securely grasped. The waitress crawled an inch towards her and muttered an apology before fixing her eyes on the on the ground again.

"And pray to whatever pitiful god you have that I do not see you in my presence again, ever", he spat.

Following a sign from Colonel Fury, the guards lowered their weapons and a couple of them hurried to the injured woman, joined by a team of paramedics that must had been on hold somewhere inside the building.

Leah looked at the god, still worried that anything, anyone, could do something unexpected and provoke his anger once again. To her relief, the malevolence in Loki's eyes had subsided, but the knot in her own stomach kept on growing, pumping up bile and making her head spin. Despite the air conditioning being on, she felt like she was suffocating.

"I have to... I need to... Can you excuse me for a moment?" she asked Loki, signalling the way to the ladies' room downstairs.

"Are you ill?" He sounded genuinely worried, for once. Leah just nodded, mentally berating herself for looking so weak and whiny, for wanting to curl up in a corner and cry until the strangling sensation in her throat had disappeared. Without waiting for an answer she hurried down the steps, kicked the restroom door and barely had enough time to kneel inside one of the cubicles before the contents of her stomach abandoned her. She sat on the floor and rested her burning forehead against the tiled wall until the dizziness stopped.

There was a cosy sitting space beside the marble sink, and Leah fell clumsily on an armchair and kicked off her pumps after splashing some cold water on her face and wrists.

"Miss Channing?" came a voice from behind the restroom door. Holding her shoes in one hand, she opened the door to find a mildly worried Tony Stark. "Are you decent?"

"Decent? It depends on who you ask. That waitress called me everything but _decent _a moment ago."

"Don't kick yourself over what happened out there. All the restaurant workers were briefed about your situation earlier today. That woman knew you were a hostage, and yet she chose to disregard Fury's direct orders and play 'holier than thou' with you. I'm not excusing what your boyfriend did, but her behaviour was beyond stupid", he said, stepping inside the restroom and closing the door behind him. "Before you ask, she's not as badly injured as it seemed, just a broken arm and a few bruised ribs. She'll be perfectly fine in no time."

"It's my fault. I should have shut my big mouth for once."

"I never judge a lady by her lover, and I'm most certainly not judging _you_. Unfortunately, the rescue operation I told you about would be compromised now, so I'm afraid you'll have to be patient for a while."

"I'm sorry, but... did you follow me down here just to tell me that? Because I kind of figured it out myself, and I don't think my 'boyfriend', as you called him, would be thrilled to see me talking to you right now."

"In fact, Fury and I were kind of hoping that you would be a clever girl and find a moment to get out of Loki's sight. There's someone else who would like to talk to you, and we didn't want to put him in the same room as Reindeer Games, or we'd be risking a restaurant-sized Armageddon." With those words he opened the door again and popped his head out. "What are you waiting for, Goldilocks?"

"I will not enter the ladies' room. It would not be appropriate", came a deep voice from outside.

"Bullshit. Get your ass in here before our friend upstairs gets impatient and blows up the place with us inside."

The blond, tall man came through the door almost apologetically, if that was possible in someone so big and broad-shouldered, and bowed his head to Leah in silence. She answered with a matching head inclination and a suspicious glance.

"Let me guess... you're not exactly from around here, right?"

"I am Thor of Asgard. Loki is my brother."

She let herself fall on the armchair again and covered her eyes with her hand. "Oh, boy..."

* * *

_Note on the locations: the Cub Room pictured here is fictional, but inspired in a real place with that name, the VIP area of the New York nightclub/restaurant The Stork Club. It's heavily featured in the movie 'All About Eve'. The building was demolished in 1966, and the site is now the location of Paley Park._


	8. Ah, but Underneath

**Chapter 8: Ah, But Underneath**

_(Warnings for this chapter: very NSFW)_

"Adopted. From another world. Of which there are... nine, right?" Leah pressed her fingertips to her temples, trying to make sense of the flood of information Thor was pouring on her. He was telling her about the Jötnar and the war that had finished with Loki being taken into an Asgardian household.

"Yes. Jotunheim is a frozen realm, barren and wild, inhabited by Frost Giants. They look like..."

"No!" She interrupted the gold-haired Asgardian, holding her palms up in a gesture of defeat. "That's enough. I really, really don't want to know. Not if I have to go home with him tonight."

"Go easy on the lady, He-Man", said Tony, extracting a flask from his jacket pocket and handing it to Leah. "Try not to traumatize her for life with your war tales. Drink a bit of this, honey. Brewed and bottled in Kentucky especially for me."

She took a small sip and swallowed hard. "Bourbon. Not bad", she said, drinking a bit more.

"You may want to save some for later. This stuff is strong."

"That's funny. Tony Stark, world-class alcoholic, trying to give me lessons in temperance", she smirked, giving him the flask back.

"Never mind. Anyway, we should probably get going before Silvertongue starts missing you and makes a scene."

"So, first you drag me to a secret meeting in the bathroom, like a group of high school girlfriends sneaking out to have a smoke, and now that you two are sure that I don't know anything about Loki's invasion plans, I'm summarily dismissed? The only useful thing I've learned so far is that my alien acquaintance is a bit more alien than I had thought. And a bit more deranged", she observed while she put her shoes back on. "By the way, Stark, what's with you inventing nicknames for everybody? Silvertongue, really?"

"That is not an invention of the Man of Iron. My brother was indeed called that, back in Asgard", explained Thor.

Leah let out a fake childish giggle. "Well, that kind of explains a couple of things... especially if it's not related to his powers of speech." She experienced a sort of malicious satisfaction seeing Thor blush. The Asgardian shifted uncomfortably in his armchair, which was too small for him, and made an effort to change the topic.

"Despite all he has done, I still think there is hope for my brother. Not much, just a glimpse. And it may surprise you, Lady Leah..."

"Please, drop the treatment. This is Earth and we're in the ladies room, it doesn't get more familiar than that."

"Leah. Maybe some of that hope can come from you."

"From me?" she asked, lifting her eyebrows in disbelief. "I'm not sure if I want to know what you mean by that."

"The Loki I saw a few days ago in Stuttgart would have killed that serving maid in a heartbeat. And he certainly would not have listened to your pleas."

"Nonsense. You saw him out there, saw how uncontrollable he can be."

"I also observed that when you pleaded him for mercy, he listened to you. I am sure that you have touched something inside my brother... That he cares for you more than you think."

"That may be the scariest thing I've heard in months... Do you really know him so well that you can deduce all that after having seen us together for five minutes, from wherever you were hiding?"

"I know what I am talking about; I have given my heart to a Midgardian woman."

"Next time you see her, ask her to give it back. It will be for the best." She rose from her seat and checked the state of her hair in the mirror, trying to keep an impassive expression on her face. "Well, this has been a very interesting talk. Awkward and disturbing, too. But if I don't go back there right now he's going to come looking for me, and... if I witness more violence today I swear I'll throw up the first meal I ever ate."

Tony checked his watch and got up too. "Is there anyone you want us to deliver a message to? A friend, a relative?"

"Not really."

"Your ex-boyfriend has been nagging the German police with phone calls twice a day since you disappeared."

"Who, Mark? Wow, life gives you the strangest surprises." She considered it for a moment. "No, don't tell him anything. Or anybody else."

"Fine. Take care of yourself, doll."

"Thank you, Mr. Stark. Thor, it's been... it's been kind of weird meeting you, to be honest. But you look like a good man, and I don't meet many of those on a regular basis."

Her small hand disappeared into Thor's squeezy handshake.

"You are a remarkable woman. I am sorry about your... predicament, but in other circumstances I would have been glad for my brother to have found someone like you."

"He may have found me, but right now I'm feeling rather lost. Good evening, gentlemen." She recovered her hand, blinked a couple of times trying to shake the sadness that was threatening to creep into her mind, and started walking up the stairs to the restaurant.

Before the two men could exit the ladies' room, a sudden flash of green outside the door revealed a Loki-shaped silhouette, slightly transparent. His gaze followed Leah until she was completely out of sight and then, with another green flicker of light, it vanished into thin air.

* * *

Loki closed and bolted the door of the Catskills house behind them. Leah had never been claustrophobic, but she involuntarily tensed up when she heard the click of the security locks engaging, like the closing sound of a trap. Not bothering to take off her heels she let herself fall on the couch, burying her face in the soft velvet cushions and trying very hard not to think.

"Are you crying?" Again, the worried tone, the one that she didn't want to hear.

"I told you, I don't cry", came her voice, muffled from behind the cushions.

"Then what is wrong?"

"What is...? Have you forgotten that you almost fucking killed a human being in front of me?"

"She insulted you."

"And you don't think that was just a little out of proportion? You sent her flying to the other side of the room, for Christ's sake!"

"You stopped me."

"Barely. Just... barely."

"Leah, listen to me."

"No, _you_ listen to me. Why did you take me with you today? You could have left me here and avoided that scene." She took off one of her shoes and threw it across the room towards the hallway, where it landed with a loud noise.

"I never do anything without reason. If you absolutely must know, I wanted them to see that you were alive and well. A sign of good will."

"Bullshit. That wasn't good will, you were showing off." The other shoe flew over Loki's head and landed on the carpet with a dull thud. "You wanted SHIELD to know that I was still alive _and_ under your power. To think of me as someone with a face, not just a name in a missing persons report, so that now they'll be extra careful if they think of attacking while I'm with you."

There was an uncomfortable silence, and Leah sat up to see that Loki was staring at her. Still impassible, still unmoved.

"By the way, I met your brother at the restaurant."

"I know." His whole demeanor changed at the mention of Thor: his eyes became more haunted and he tightened his lips together in a hard line. "I expected Stark to make an attempt to talk to you in private. What I did not anticipate was that Thor would be there too... How perfectly sentimental of him. And, as he told you, we are not _real_ brothers."

"How do you know what he told me?"

He crouched beside the couch and held Leah's face between his hands. "I have ways of listening without being seen." His blue-green eyes sought her face and traveled to her lips. "What did you think of my... brother? Did his warrior stance impress you?" he whispered, with a hint of poison in his voice.

"Are you really going to play the jealous boyfriend? I thought one of the greatest minds in the universe would know me better than to believe that I would be distracted by that. The only thing that I wanted from him was to listen at what he said about you." She grabbed Loki's hands and pushed him away, annoyed. Hitching up the hem of her gown to avoid tripping on it, she walked towards the bar and poured herself a drink, Southern Comfort and Sprite.

"I do not like other men looking at what is mine. Especially Stark." He spat the name as if it were a curse word. "You seemed very eager, talking to him."

"Will you stop with that? I know Tony Stark's type, and I'm not it. He's not as shallow as he tries so hard to appear, and he wasn't interested in me anyway, only in knowing exactly what kind of pawn I am in your little sick game of conquest chess."

"He is known for having an excellent taste in women. It should not surprise me that he was admiring you."

"I'm taking that as a compliment, just to end this. Now, can you stop talking about me as if I was a new Lamborghini that Stark was checking out, instead of a person? I already feel objectified enough wearing this dress." Leah's fingers toyed with the fabric, knowing that it was impossible for her to be comfortable with all those yards of green silk around her.

"You still do not like it."

"Admit it's not exactly my style. And it's so long that I'm constantly scared of tripping."

"I have to admit that it would look better pooled at your feet."

"Now you're talking." This was a game she could play with her eyes closed, a way to feel alive without having to think or worry or consider the consequences. She placed her free hand on Loki's shoulder, pushing his jacket off him. He snatched the glass from her hand and took a sip, making a slight grimace.

"How can you drink this? It is disgusting."

"It's an acquired habit. Just like you", she said, recovering her glass and holding it far from Loki's reach.

"I am a habit?" He asked, arching an eyebrow. "Would you care to explain that?"

"The day you brought me here... Just four days ago, if my memory still works... I needed three of these to stomach the thought of getting into a bed with you. Tonight, I'm barely starting my first glass and I already want you to fuck me into the mattress."

"Language, Leah."

"Screw language. And screw me. In that order." She let out a humorless laugh. The suit jacket had fallen to the floor and her hand moved to his tie, loosening the knot just a bit. "On a second thought, forget the mattress. The fireplace is lit, the couch is as big as a bed, and this carpet is so thick that I could sleep on it. The people who lived here had a hideous taste, but at least they knew how to make a room comfortable."

Loki seemed amused with the thought. "When I rule over Midgard, you will have a palace if you want it."

"No." She raised a finger to his lips. "Please, don't. Don't speak of your plans, or the future, or of anything of consequence. Several times now you have asked for my silence, and now it's my turn. Just this time... shut up and fuck me. Make me stop thinking, Loki. Make me burn."

Loki placed a reassuring hand on her waist. "Whatever is on your mind, whatever worries you, I can take care of it."

"My mind it's not the one who requires your attention tonight." With slow movements, Leah left her glass on the table and started wrapping Loki's black tie around her hand, pulling him close, gripping him just a bit too tight as she locked her mouth against his. The tip of his tongue slipped between her lips and touched hers, gently. He let her loosen his tie completely and fumble with the shirt buttons until it was open to his waist.

"God, you're beautiful", she whispered against his lips.

"Do not call me God, we are way past the formalities." He flashed her one of his little, sly smiles and Leah laughed again, this time sincerely.

"Are you going to get this hideous dress off me, or shall I go to the bedroom alone, take care of myself and not let you watch?"

Loki's eyes darkened, and the grip on her waist became tighter. "You would have a very hard time trying to stop me from watching. And joining." One of his hands went to the nape of her neck, holding her in place. "What exactly is making you so adventurous tonight, lovely Leah?"

"Why are men so skeptical when a woman starts behaving like them? Is it so weird that I may want you on my own accord? That I want to use you as you've been using me?"

"It is an interesting development, considering that we did not start on a good note."

"I'm glad to see that you've mastered the use of euphemisms." She ran her fingers through Loki's hair and stood on her tiptoes to talk close to his ear_._ "Maybe I've finally convinced myself that I deserve a god of my own."

_Or maybe I don't give a damn anymore._

His hand slid across the swell of her hips and crept up, first to her breast and then to the small patch of skin near her shoulder where she still bore the mark of his teeth. Leah's breath hitched and she rocked her hips against his, drawing a low moan from the increasingly aroused god. She felt his warm breath against the hollow of her throat, followed by the awkward but not unwelcome touch of a pair of cold lips.

"Good, because I intend to ravish you all night... and again in the morning." His voice seeped into her mind, dripping with desire, bringing goosebumps onto her skin and a fierce blush to her cheeks.

_Silvertongue, indeed._

He started tugging anxiously at the bodice of her gown; Leah brought a hand to her back to lower the zipper, but before she could even reach it she heard the distinct, tearing sound of fabric being ripped off, and the dress fell from her body in a shapeless mess, followed by the remains of her satin slip. She leaned down and pressed her lips to his exposed chest while managing to make quick work of his belt and trousers right before her hands started to shake.

It made her both nervous and bold, feeling Loki hot and hard under her palm, hearing the rhythm of his breathing go from quiet to frantic in mere seconds. She brushed his lips over his nipple and heard him hiss; when she repeated the movement a second time she felt a hand grab her hair and pull her up, stretching her backwards and exposing her neck to his ravenous mouth. The trail of bite-kisses left her breathless, whimpering; small drops of sweat started forming in her forehead, and the touch of Loki's cool skin was like water in the desert for her feverish body.

_Each night his fingers seem less cold, his skin less alien, his eyes more human... something is wrong with me, very wrong._

Her mind tried to scream _wrong_ but the gentle gliding of his fingertips over her sweaty skin felt so right, so perfect, that she immediately told the little voice in her brain to shut the fuck up and enjoy the ride. There was no thought, no conscience, only hunger; she was devouring his mouth as if every swallowed moan was the air she needed to stay alive. Then Loki raked his teeth over her nipples and the electric sensation travelled down, all the way to her loins, making her throw her head back and whimper like a madwoman.

The last pieces of her underwear fell to the floor, miraculously not torn to shreds, and her body was forcefully pushed against the wall; but, instead of entering her, Loki dropped to his knees and she felt his lips draw an icy trail down her stomach. Shivering, Leah let out a surprised gasp when she saw the rabid expression of the god between her legs: his eyes were narrowed to slits, and a patch of red showed on the paleness of his cheeks. She arched her back slightly and rocked her body forward, towards the flicking tongue that worshipped her with greedy licks and expert movements.

After a moment he alternated the attack on her pleasure centre with little nibbles on the inside of her thighs. It should have hurt, but it didn't, not more than the outrage Leah knew she should be feeling at the thought of being marked as his, again, but at this point nothing did matter to her anymore.

Without warning, the tension coiled up in her loins and her knees started to buckle. Only the wall behind her and the god's firm grip on her hips prevented her from collapsing on the carpet. A pair of inhumanly strong arms lifted her and threw her on the couch, facing down, and she barely had time to hold on to the arm of the couch before he settled himself between her slick folds with a low grunt, filling her all at once, claiming her flesh in a passionate rhythm.

In all her previous relationships, Leah had never been very vocal during sex. The walls of an apartment in any modern city are not exactly soundproof, and she always had thought that there was something vulgar and undignified in crying and wailing like a pornstar, even if the occasion deserved it. But Loki was reaching dark places in her mind, releasing something that could not be expressed just by moaning softly. She found herself forgetting her usual caution, and her lips moved in a constant recitation of_ 'oh' _and_ 'yes' _and_ 'god' _and_ 'fuck'_. Her body responded to the adrenaline rush by wanting more and more, pushing her hips back, towards him, until it almost hurt. He was making an effort to restrain himself, barely digging his fingers into her hips, but with each thrust he sank a little deeper, moved a little faster. Buried to the hilt, growling with need every time he plunged into her. One of his hands moved to her front, finding her oversensitive bud and teasing it until she screamed and clawed furiously at the plush velvet of the couch.

The wet slapping sound of skin on skin slowed down a bit. Restraint, again.

"Relax, my love." A husky whisper, close to her ear, that instead of having the desired effect made her muscles tense even more.

_My love? Fuck, no. No way. Things said during sex don't count, everybody knows that._

The thrusts stopped. One of Loki's hands moved from her hip, fingers sliding up her spine to finally caress the side of her neck. Leah rested her cheek on the arm of the couch and sighed, craning her neck to throw a frenzied look at the man behind her.

"No, no, don't stop. Keep going. Harder!"

Loki retreated from inside her and turned her around to face him, resting his forehead against hers.

"I do not want you to get hurt. If I used even half of my full force, you could end up dead."

"I guess you never were the kind of kid that broke his toys", she panted, half mocking him.

"I dismantled them, to see how they worked... and then put them back together". Leah wasn't expecting a serious answer, nor the slow and almost delicate kiss that followed.

"And do you have me figured out yet?" she asked, teasingly.

"You are proving to be a test for my patience." Another kiss, this time on her collarbone, before he dragged his lips to the bite mark between her neck and her shoulder. A sudden fear made her shut her eyes, fists clenched in an involuntary reflex. But instead of another bite she got the oddly amplified sensation of his tongue gliding over the raised scar, barely touching it, as if he could make it fade with every caress.

Then with a firm but gentle thrust he was inside her again and she started a slow, screwing movement of her hips that brought a wave of pleasure all over her senses. She tried to wrap her legs around his waist, but Loki grabbed her and hooked one of her knees over his elbow. The new position forced her to lift her hips in an almost impossible angle, allowing him to slam deeper into her core.

The coil of white heat started building in Leah's stomach, again, and she held onto his shoulders for support, feeling how his muscles tensed every time he shoved into her. She pulled him down towards her with all her strength, leaning up to lick and kiss the length of his neck, to pull his hair, to sink her teeth into his shoulder in unison with the mad cadence of his hips, before everything went dark and her orgasm ripped her to shreds.

She felt Loki throb inside her, her muscles clenching around his length, but he didn't slow down until finally his breath hitched and he let himself go, gasping her name between gritted teeth. One more pounding thrust, two, and then the weariness of the aftermath made him collapse on top of her, his head resting on her flushed breasts.

The couch was a bit too narrow to accommodate both of them, and Leah shifted from under him and sat up, trying to find a comfortable position. Now that it was over she felt cold, exposed. Loki grasped her and settled her on his lap, wrapping his arms around her, sucking gently on the sensitive patch of skin just below her ear.

"Don't do that unless you're ready for round two", she panted. "And, if you are, you'll have to wait, because I'm drained."

Loki just smiled and placed a light kiss on her temple. "Come to the bedroom. I can wait, but I am not finished with you yet... and I know you are not finished with me either."

She raised a hand to his cheek, smooth and pale under her fingertips. "In a minute. I need to... freshen up first."

He grabbed her wrist and pressed his lips to the palm of her hand, giving her an approving nod.

Leah watched the tall, lean figure disappear down the hallway, and let out a small sigh. Not bothering to cover up she approached the bar, grabbed the bottle of Southern Comfort, unscrew the cap and brought it to her lips. It was almost empty, and she swallowed the last drops with a grimace. There was a mirror on the wall over the drinks cabinet, and she stared for a long while at her naked reflection, the faint marks of love bites on her skin, the trickle of fluid running down her inner thigh. She sighed again, put the bottle carefully back in place among the rest, and walked with silent steps towards the bedroom.


	9. The Last Midnight

_Thank you to everyone who is reading this story for all the reviews and favorites! I have the best readers in the world.  
_

* * *

**Chapter 9: The Last Midnight**

**May 21. The Catskills.**

Disposing of the empty bottle had been easy. Easier than with the ones in her office, where she always ended up hiding them in her tote bag and taking them home; her silly secretary wouldn't have noticed, but the cleaning ladies always knew who stayed late at work, who had affairs with who, and, especially, what secret vices could be deduced from the suspicious items left in the garbage bins.

But Loki didn't mind if she drank as long as he didn't see her hammered, like that first night. Even so, she took care of smashing the bottle and dropping the shards in the bottom of the recycle bin. Then she carefully put the full, brand new bottle of Southern Comfort in its usual place at the bar.

Leah was alone, again. After a long night where he had been surprisingly affectionate with her, Loki had disappeared for the day, as usual. At lunchtime she had experienced a brief moment of panic when she realized how much she missed his presence. That led to the opening of the new bottle, and a third of it was consumed through the afternoon. By tea time she had made the bed, cooked dinner and done all the dishes. After that she felt so bored that she started to redecorate the bedroom (which mainly meant taking down a few paintings, moving the chairs and hiding the collection of hideous glass figurines in a drawer). When she was finished she sat on the edge of the bed, feeling a bit short of breath from all her incessant activity.

_Is this what my life is going to be from now on? Cooped up in the house by day, and 'the warrior's rest' by night?_

The clock on the bedroom wall struck ten. She hadn't realized how fast the hours had passed, and Loki had never been that late. On a hunch she hurried to the living room and saw him lounging on the carpet, reading a book, as if he didn't have a care in the world.

"The Count of Monte Cristo, again? I think you're developing a less than sane obsession with that book." She sounded irked, and she really was. A bit angry at him for being so late and letting her worry, and a lot angrier at herself for worrying, for missing him in spite of all logic.

"I like it. I was reading the passages about that slave that Dantés liberated."

"Haydée." Leah snatched the book from his hand and sat on a low ottoman, keeping her distance from him.

"Yes. He freed her from servitude and made her a princess by his side. He gave her a house, servants, jewels, everything."

Leah frowned, trying to recall the facts of the novel. "If I remember correctly, she was not allowed to leave the house after being 'liberated'. She essentially remained a slave, only with a different master. Even she referred to herself as that. Her regained freedom was nothing but an illusion... and her only value to the Count was to be an instrument of his revenge."

"At first. But in the end she was given a choice, and she chose to stay with Dantés."

"A tainted choice. He locked Haydée in a golden cage, and when he finally freed her for real, he had become her only reality. She knew nothing of the outside world... that's why she stayed." Leah flipped through the pages and gave the book back to Loki. "Anyway, why this sudden interest in a minor character from a book?"

"Sometimes books can be more real than the things we see around us." Loki returned the volume to the shelf and sat on the ottoman by her side. "Consider your situation. You were a prisoner of a dull existence and a job that made you unhappy, and I have freed you from your former life."

"Are you saying that I'm... Are you seriously comparing me to her?" Leah's body became rigid as the wave of realization hit her. "For Heaven's sake, please don't tell me that the whole point of this conversation was to establish some kind of twisted parallel between me and the invented character of a pretty princess with whom I have absolutely nothing in common. That's irrational."

"Is it so farfetched, to think that you and her can share a destiny?"

"It's completely bizarre! You haven't liberated me from anything, Loki. I had a life of my own before meeting you. I had a job, friends, hobbies... I had money and independence to do what I wanted, and I was going somewhere with my life." She started pacing across the room, throwing furtive glances at Loki to see if he really meant all those things, or if he was playing some kind of prank on her.

"Your life lacked purpose. Why do you miss that insignificant existence when you can achieve greatness by my side?"

"I never asked you for greatness. I never asked you for anything, you brought me here by force!"

None of her arguments seemed to be having any effect; he seemed bewildered, as if his deranged speech made perfect sense, as if _she_ was the one talking without reason.

"I have freed you from a mediocre life, and brought you by my side to witness my triumph over this world. All Midgard will be under my rule... and only you will share a part of my glory." He walked towards the window and assumed a power stance in front of it, looking at the night outside before turning to the astonished woman behind him. "It starts tomorrow, Leah. My army is ready and my enemies are weak."

"Army? What army? Thor said no one else on your world supported you."

"There are other worlds."

She cringed inwardly when she understood what he meant by that. "An army of aliens... Is that what you're using? A battalion of creatures from... from god knows where? Creatures that can go rogue and blow up the planet if they want to?"

"They are my allies, and you have nothing to fear from them. By this time tomorrow, the invasion will be completed."

She let herself fall on the ottoman, again, because her strength seemed to be abandoning her. "And when it is completed, when you're the supreme king of Earth, what will you do?"

"I will not be an entirely unmerciful ruler, if that is what you are implying."

Leah covered her eyes with her hands, trying to concentrate, to put her thoughts into words, to make him understand... "Loki, that's not what I mean. You can be better than Washington, Lincoln and Kennedy rolled into one once you are in a position of power, but the only thing the people will remember is how you achieved that power. They may obey your orders under coercion, but they will hate you for that."

"_You_ do not hate me."

"Are you planning to have sex with the entire population of Earth to make them like you? Because that may take a while", she said with a grimace.

He signaled to the TV set mounted on the wall. "Have you seen the state of your world, Leah? The war, the famine, the violence? All of that will end under my rule. I will give your people freedom. I will bring peace."

"An artificial peace. Brought by someone that's not one of us, that will always be perceived as an alien invader, especially if you surround yourself by a company of ETs."

"The people of Midgard will worship me as their god", he muttered between clenched teeth.

"That will be an even bigger problem. Even if you can persuade the agnostics and convert the religious ones, and there are many who will die before giving up their beliefs... Can you cure our illnesses, Loki? Each and every one of them? Can you bring the dead back to life? Can you perform miracles? Because that's exactly what people will expect from you. And if you don't deliver, you will be forgotten, like most of the absent, invisible gods that the people on this planet used to worship thousands of years ago. What do you think they will demand from a god who has a face, a name and a body? Cure a sick person and his neighbor will envy him and despise you. Make a blind man regain his sight, and he will hate you because he doesn't like the world he sees. We are selfish, we are ungrateful, that's how human beings are wired. And, eventually, they will raise against you."

"I will make use of my army to keep the peace, if I have to. Any burst of rebellion will be obliterated."

"Maybe. But for how long will this alien army of yours occupy Earth? What will happen in ten, twenty, fifty years? How many attacks can you resist?"

"I am practically invulnerable to any Midgardian weapon. No one can hurt me."

Leah looked out of the window, with her gaze lost at some point in the dark horizon. "But they can hurt _me_."

"What do you mean?" Loki stared at her, as if he didn't understand the words she was saying.

"It's only logical that the first target of any attack will be me, especially after you showed to SHIELD how ballistic you go when I'm in any danger. Unless you lock me up in a bunker forever, it won't be long before a fanatic, or a member of whatever resistance the people may organize, makes an attempt for my life. I'm not invulnerable, I'm not immortal. I can be killed... and I know I will be."

"They will not attack one of their own", he said, increasingly agitated. "I will not allow it."

"Allow it? For heaven's sake, Loki! If that waitress at the Cub Room had been a bit more insane and had carried a gun, she could have shot me in the head six times before you reacted!"

"I said I will not allow it! If anyone touches as much as a hair on your head I will rip his heart out."

"Very considerate of you, but that won't bring me back to life."

He walked to Leah and held her face between his hands, smiling at her, and in that moment she could feel all the delirious intensity of his obsession. "You do not understand yet. But you will. By this time tomorrow, after a short battle, I will be a king again. Then you shall appreciate what it means to be by my side, to be the only person in all Midgard to keep your freedom."

"Freedom?" Hearing that word in such a twisted context enraged her all of a sudden. "Loki, all you've done since I met you was take all my freedom away. Jesus Christ, you don't even let me choose my own clothes!"

"I would appreciate it if you did not swear in the name of other gods."

"To hell with all the gods in the world. And with you!"

"I have been to Hel. Several times, in fact."

"You can go back there, for all I care. Take your brother with you, and your stupid alien army, and go back to trying to conquer a throne that isn't yours!"

She had barely finished screaming to Loki's face, when the air around them seemed to thicken. Suddenly she felt like the tall ceilings and the white walls were trying to close upon her at Loki's command.

"What did you just say?" He stared down at her from his height, and his expression was so hurt that Leah wished she had bit her tongue before speaking.

"Only what your brother told me. I'm sorry but, judging by your reaction... maybe he had a point."

"Thor is not my brother, and I forbid you to mention him again! I will not be lectured by a Midgardian chit who does not know her place."

"And I will not be psychoanalyzed by a bratty god with daddy issues!" A few words too many, twice in a row. She realized that mentioning his family had been a very bad move just a millisecond after the words had spurted from her mouth. She turned around, alarmed, with the clear intention to storm out of the room, but Loki grabbed her arm in a painful grip before she could take one step.

"And what about you, Leah? What about your issues?"

"I don't have them. Let go of my arm."

"Excellent! Now let us sit down and have a glass of wine... while you tell me all about your _mother_." He didn't just say the word, he practically spat it, as if he knew exactly how much it upset her.

Leah tried to avert her eyes, but she couldn't help showing how unsettled she was by that question. "I already told you. She's dead."

"Well, I want to know more. What did she look like? What was her name?"

"That's irrelevant to you. And to me. Let me go!"

"When did you realize for the first time how much she had disappointed you?" asked Loki, holding her firmly by the shoulders, his mouth curving into a cruel snarl. "When did you start putting on that mask of coldness to hide your feelings? In what precise moment did you stop caring?"

"How the...? You know nothing of my life!"

"I know more than you imagine. Did you feel anything at all when she died? Did you experience remorse when you knew she had died alone in a hospital room? Did you go back to your town and stare at the door of her empty house, thinking how you could have done things differently? Are you still able to spare a thought for Lorna Channing once or twice a year?"

"Stop... Stop it, shut up!"

Leah's breath had become more and more agitated, until she felt her lungs were going to explode. Loki's words were stirring something that she wanted hidden and untouched; messing with her head, intruding in a past that had been almost blissfully forgotten. She opened her mouth to speak, but no sound came out. Her fists slammed, weakly, on Loki's chest, but he didn't let her go from his grip, until she finally let out a scream of frustration.

Just when she thought she was going to faint and make an even bigger fool of herself, Loki relaxed the grip on her arms and she practically collapsed into his chest, breathing in long, painful gasps.

"What the hell was all that about?" she managed to say in a broken voice, trying to contain the outrage that bubbled inside of her.

"You are not the only one to be tormented by the past. I merely wanted to show you what we have in common", he whispered, stroking her hair and tucking her head under his chin.

"Fuck you. I mean no disrespect, but... fuck you." She stood locked in his arms for a while, until the shudders stopped. "God, this is starting to look like a contest of whose life is more screwed up."

"Believe me, if this was a contest, I would win without a doubt." He held her chin between his fingers, and his tone was once again calm, soothing, as if he was trying to pacify an agitated child, but all he managed was to irritate her more.

"Don't corner me like that again. And don't mention that woman's name again. Ever."

She slipped from Loki's arms and hurried back to the bedroom, making a lot of noise with her heels on purpose and reviewing in her mind the long list of all the profanities she had wanted, but not dared, to shout at him. The drink she had left unfinished before was still on the vanity table. The ice was completely melted, but she drank it anyway in one single gulp.

A pair of long arms wrapped around Leah's waist from behind, and she let him pull her backwards, facing the mirror, into an embrace that was just a bit too tight, a tad too needy.

"Leah..."

"I don't want to speak to you right now."

"Can we agree that there are certain things that should never be mentioned... by any of us?" She saw Loki's reflection in the vanity mirror, with that innocent, almost apologetic look that she didn't know exactly how to decipher.

"Yes, but I don't see how..."

He cuddled against her back, letting her feel his warm breath on the back of her neck, and pressed a soft, almost chaste kiss to the top of her spine. "Stop arguing with me. Stop challenging everything and everyone around you, just for a moment. Can you do that?"

"I just don't get what's so terrible about your past. Your br... I mean, Thor, told me that you were abandoned and adopted, and that's not exactly a tragedy. There are millions of adopted children here on Earth, and most of them aren't told of their real heritage until they're almost adults. They may have some issues with that, but I'm sure they don't go around the universe throwing planet-sized tantrums."

Loki raised an eyebrow. "I knew Thor would not be brave enough to tell you everything."

"Everything?"

"Step back." His voice changed all of a sudden, deeper and, somehow, colder than before.

"What?"

"Take one step back, look at me, but do not move or come close to me until I give you permission to do so."

"Loki, you're scaring me. And you hadn't been scary since yesterday, I thought we were making progress", she tried to joke, with no effect.

"If you want to know what I really am, maybe it is time to show you the monster."

Leah did what he asked, leaning on the wall behind her and and looking skeptically at the god. She didn't want to question his orders after his earlier outburst, but she was also very suspicious of this unusual request for personal space, and she had the feeling that the use of the word _monster_ wasn't exactly an exaggeration.

It started at floor level, the glacial cold, as if the floorboard beneath her was turning into stone. Then the air in the room chilled and Leah shivered in her thin dress, getting goosebumps all over her bare legs. She looked around for the source of the icy wave, until she realized it was right in front of her. Loki's features had transformed; the usually pale and smooth skin was now blue tinged and crisscrossed with strange markings. He seemed taller, bigger, but that was only because every muscle in Leah's body was contracting. Instinctively, she wrapped her arms around her, trying to protect herself from the paralyzing temperature drop and making a mental effort to stop her teeth from chattering. And yet, the sight of Loki's blue skin and the terrible cold that radiated from him weren't so bad, in comparison.

What really terrified her to death were his eyes. Red, flaming, alien... as if no sign of humanity could ever be found in them. And he just stood there, terribly still, while the red eyes roamed over her face, studying her reaction.

Leah felt like her brain had been chilled numb. She couldn't think, or speak. Her breath came in clouds of vapor in front of her. She blamed her frozen neurons for what she did next, that and the stupid curiosity that always got the best of her. Using the wall for leverage, she extended her arm and touched Loki's cheek with the tip of her finger.

The burst of pain was sharper than she expected, like a burn or the sting of a whip, a deadly sensation that traveled up her left arm and reached for her chest. She recoiled immediately with a loud yelp, tried to lean on the wall again, with little success, and fell on her knees on the floor clutching her injured hand. Only when a pair of strong hands lifted her did she realize that Loki had returned to his usual appearance.

"Are you insane? I told you not to move!"

"After all this time, you should... ah, fuck, it hurts... should know that I'm not that good at doing what I'm told." She clung to him with her good arm, trying to get back on her feet. She had the impulse of touching his face one more time, if only to prove to herself that the semblance of his frozen form had disappeared. Or to chase away the sadness that hinted to appear in Loki's eyes, the eyes that were their usual greenish-blue shade again. Anyway, it took her a while to stop shivering, even after Loki lifted her and placed her carefully on the soft duvet of the bed.

"I confess I was surprised by your reaction."

"I wanted to know if it was real or... I don't know. An illusion, like those duplicates of yourself you made in Germany."

Loki held Leah's injured hand and examined it. The tip of her pointer finger was red and starting to blister, and the rest of her hand was still abnormally cold. "It is real. What you saw is what I am by birth. A Jotun... a monster."

He sat on the bed next to her, with his eyes closed, and lifted her fingers to his lips, the lightest of touches against the tender skin. It hurt, but she trailed her fingertip along the line of his mouth and his cheeks, tracing the path of the marks that weren't there anymore. With a swift movement she shifted onto Loki's lap, straddling him, with her hands on his shoulders. No one moved or spoke for a while, until after a long moment he looked at her again.

"Loki, what you're going to do with your invasion of this planet may make you a monster. But looking like Doctor Manhattan doesn't."

"Do you really believe that? Even now that you have experienced for yourself what a simple touch of my skin can do?", he uttered, bitterly.

"There are more monsters of Earth than you'd think. And on the outside they look like normal, happy, well-adjusted people, but inside they're crippled and rotten. At least you've been honest with me, and that's enough... enough to not make me judge you." She ran her fingers over his forehead, trying to brush away the anguished look in his eyes. Loki breathed in a deep sigh, and his lips finally curved in a slow smile.

"How do you manage to surprise me over and over again, woman?" he growled close to her ear. His right hand crept over Leah's leg, tickling the back of her knee before gathering the folds of her skirt up to her thigh.

"Get your hand off there", she pouted, shaking her head. "If you want make up sex after all those awful things you said to me before, you're going to have to work for it."

"This may be the last night we spend together, Leah."

"Do you really have doubts about your fantabulous invasion, or is this just emotional blackmail to get into my panties?"

Her question was rewarded with a playful smile. "Even the best laid plans can fail."

"Then maybe I should go to bed", she muttered, wiggling on his lap as if she wanted to get up, "while you return to wherever you go every day and tweak those plans to perfection."

"No. Stay with me." His voice was soft, almost a whisper, as if he was asking gently instead of giving her an order.

"Would it kill you to say 'please', only once?"

"Stay", he repeated. He placed a hand on the small of Leah's back and run his fingers up her spine, pulling her tighter into his frame, and she let her body go limp in his arms. They stayed like that, lost in a fugitive sense of bliss, unwilling to let go of the other's embrace, to think of what the next day could bring. Comforting one another with the closeness of their bodies. Loki ghosted his lips over her mouth and her neck once and again, muttering something unintelligible against her lips, and she wrapped her arms around him and fell into a sort of slumber where the only real things were his touch, his scent, the steady rhythm of his breath. Only when she was almost on the edge of sleep she recognized the word he was whispering, but this time she had no strength or will to fight against its meaning.

"Mine."

The clock on the wall struck twelve.


	10. Chromolume 7

**Chapter 10: Chromolume #7**

**May 22. The Catskills.**

Birds sing at dawn to proclaim their territories, to tell neighboring birds that they have survived the night and are still in residence. The thick forest that surrounded Loki's hideout had an abundant population of avian creatures, whose chirping, just before sunrise, was loud enough to wake up the heaviest of sleepers. Leah used to love those brief moments between sleep and waking state, when her only reality was the soft bed beneath her, and the everyday troubles (work deadlines, annoying colleagues, silly ex-boyfriends…) were many miles away from her mind.

It took her a few seconds to remember that her bed was not _her_ bed, that she wasn't in her Stuttgart apartment, that her life had been turned upside down in just a week's time. Stifling a sleepy groan, she extended her arm towards the empty space beside her; the space left every morning when Loki disappeared at dawn to go the Devil knew where.

Only it wasn't empty this time. Her fingers brushed against the smooth skin and taut muscle of her lover's arm, and she immediately drew her hand back, not wanting to wake him up when she had a unique chance to observe him in his sleep. He looked young, peaceful, perfectly relaxed... a striking contrast with his usual tension and poise. The faint lines around his eyes had become practically invisible, and the rising and falling of his chest, almost in slow-motion, was hypnotic.

Trying not to startle him, Leah raised herself up on one arm, taking in his features. She had never noticed how delicate his lips looked when they weren't pressed in a tight line, or the way his long dark eyelashes contrasted with the paleness of his cheeks.

_How beautiful you look when you're not trying to take over the world... _

Her hands fleeted over Loki's face, and she wondered how he would react to being woken up without warning. Not in a friendly way, obviously... he looked like the kind of man that would sleep with a knife under his pillow. Even so, she couldn't help herself and planted a soft, light kiss on the corner of Loki's mouth...

... and found herself promptly immobilized under the god's body, with her arms pinned above her head and a pair of green, hungry eyes fixed on her.

"Are you trying to surprise me, Leah? A futile attempt, to say the least."

"Good morning to you, too", she moaned. A quick glance to her watch, that she still refused to take off, even in bed, confirmed that it was barely six in the morning. "How can you be so... so alert? The sun hasn't come up yet."

"I have escaped many a dangerous situation by being always vigilant. I do not require the same amount of sleep than your mortal kind and other lesser beings."

"Lesser beings?" she repeated, in a mocking outraged tone_. "_You're the most insufferable man I've ever met."

"God."

"Whatever", she conceded with a sigh. "Now that you're awake, are you hungry?"

"Hungry. Thirsty. Starving. Only for you", he smirked, gazing over the parts of her body that weren't concealed under the sheets.

"That sounds great, but it's not going to be as fun as it should unless I can recover the use of my hands," she said, wiggling her fingers and making an unsuccessful effort to free her arms from his steel grip. The pressure of Loki's hands on her wrists didn't diminish.

"Nevertheless, it would be so tempting to tie you to the bed and have you like this... completely at my mercy."

"I'm always at your mercy, Loki, every moment of every day, tied up or not. And I told you I've never liked that kind of kinky games."

He rolled his eyes and released her, dragging his lithe fingers down the skin of her arm and trailing soft, fleeting touches along her ribcage. That had an unintended side effect, because in her half-awake state Leah was very ticklish, and she tried to repress a giggle.

"Now you are the one being insufferable. My attentions are no laughing matter."

"Try touching me in a different place… and see if I laugh or not."

"Remind me again why do I allow you to be so impertinent."

"Because you can't resist me when I do this", she muttered, raking her nails against the god's chest and then sliding her hand lower, much lower, while she pressed her lips against his. Her palm found the male flesh and started caressing him with languid strokes. Loki nibbled at her neck, delicately at first and then with more pressure as when she adjusted her pace to faster strokes and his hips jerked, involuntarily, into her hand.

That instinctive response made her conceal a wicked smile, and she started kissing a trail down his torso, finally leaning down and taking him in her mouth, moving up and down his length several times, teasing, keeping the pace deliberately slow until his breath became rushed, coming out in short gasps.

"Stop. Now", he said, with a low growl that hid a barely veiled command.

"Why, am I doing it wrong? I've never had any complaints before..."

"Are you seeking revenge for last night, woman? According to the very… ah… colorful string of expletives that came out of that lovely mouth several times, I did not leave you indifferent... or unsatisfied."

Leah lifted her face from his lap, but she couldn't quite see Loki's face in the dim grey light. However, she heard the smile in his tone and felt the muscles in his abdomen tighten under her touch. Good sign.

"Well, you kept me occupied till all hours, which means this _lesser_ _mortal_ has had very little sleep... But I'm guessing those moans mean that you didn't have enough of me."

He reacted with a short staccato of a laugh. "Oh, it would take me hundreds of years to have enough of you."

"Careful with what you say, conqueror of worlds. That sounded almost romantic."

She let out a startled gasp when Loki grabbed her by the arms and pressed her again into the mattress. He crawled over her and grasped a fistful of her hair, and Leah found herself unable to move once more, feeling his warm breath against her lips.

"Romance is for wandering minstrels and kitchen wenches. You are important to me", he whispered, holding her face in his hands as his lips touched hers. "And this 'conqueror of worlds', as you call me, wants to ride into battle today with the memory of your embrace."

_Important. Important...? Curious choice of words._

Leah's line of thought was interrupted by the attack of Loki's mouth on her already ravaged neck, and her mind became blank when he teased her lips with a flick of his tongue, only stopping to bite her just hard enough to startle her a little, to make her breath hitch. He was playing with her, same as she had done with him a moment before, enjoying her little whimpers when he lowered his hand to her other set of lips and slipped a finger into her wet heat.

Godly games at ungodly hours.

Leah bit her bottom lip and rocked her hips against the Asgardian's hand. There were no more words after the surprising declaration of her importance, not that it mattered because Loki immediately added a second finger and she found herself unable to think of anything except his touch. His movements were as controlled and graceful as usual, but there was an urgency in the way his mouth closed on hers, a savage desperation that reminded her of the possibility of that being their last moment together.

She tangled her hands in his hair, anchoring her body against his, tipping her head back when he found her breasts and took a nipple between his teeth, sending a jolt of electricity down her spine. Loki moved his body between his lover's thighs, her parted legs open for him, and Leah saw him flash one of his maddening, sly smiles before he shoved himself inside, roughly, in a single powerful stroke. His face was buried in the crook of her neck and he nibbled at the soft skin of her throat, making the woman under him shiver at the contrast of his cold lips on her heated flesh.

It didn't take him long to pick up a fast pace, gripping her hips with both hands, anchoring her body to the mattress below them in an almost frantic effort to sink deeper into her flesh. Lea's hips met him mid-thrust, welcoming him, allowing him to bring her to the brink of release.

_As if there was no tomorrow... and that's the point, there probably isn't._

She was on the edge of an explosive climax, and when Loki slid in one more time, all the while dragging that skilled tongue along the skin between her breasts, she felt him twitch and pulse inside her, his sudden release like a hot flash that ran through her limbs. A high-pitched whine marked her own point of no return and her whole body shook, arched off the bed, and finally went slack in his arms.

He continued nuzzling at her neck for a while, as if he didn't want to let go, but Leah's exhaustion and lack of sleep was taking over her, and she could barely keep her eyes open.

"I... Sleep...?" she cooed softly, unable to form a complete sentence.

"Yes. Sleep now. We will meet again soon after the battle", Loki whispered, reaching for the blanket that had fallen to the floor at some point in the night and covering her with it.

"You know I can't, in good conscience, wish you good luck…"

"Insolent until the end. Farewell, lovely Leah."

She heard him leave the room and close the door behind him before falling into a deep slumber without dreams.

* * *

_**Devil came to me**_  
_**and he said: I know what you need**_  
_**devil came to me**_  
_**and he said you just follow me**_

**_This is the end but I'm not surprised_**  
**_you will burn in hell_**  
**_do you know why…?_**

The alarm from Leah's cell phone blasted her out of her sleep at full volume. She instinctively extended her hand to the night stand and stopped it, before realizing that her phone had been dead for several days.

But there it was, full charged and working with a normality that seemed absurd after days of silence and isolation. She sat up, holding the device in her hand and wondering how it could have been recharged on its own. The numbers on the screen told her that it was noon. Leah blinked several times, trying to decide if it was a hallucination or a dream, and after a moment she jumped out of bed, picked her underwear from the floor and ran to the living room.

_That's it, I'm seeing things. I've finally gone insane._

Something was definitely not right. On one of the chairs laid the clothes she had been wearing the day of her kidnapping: the navy blue suit, white shirt and sensible heels that she always wore to work when she had an important meeting. They had been cleaned and ironed, and her bag was on the floor next to them.

Something clicked in her brain, a hunch, and she rushed towards the mail door of the house, where she found further proof that she wasn't hallucinating.

The door was unlocked... no, not only unlocked, it was ajar, and a large manila envelope was taped to its metallic surface. Leah opened it, hands shaking, and tried to make sense of its contents: the keys of a BMW, a passport - _her_ passport, the one that should have been in a drawer of her flat in Stuttgart -, a plane ticket to California, a reservation for a suite on the Beverly Hills Hotel, and a letter written on something that looked like parchment.

**_'Take the aeroplane to that city and wait for me there. Do not stay in the house. Do not, under any circumstance, go to New York.'_**

That was it. No heading, no signature, but the calligraphy on the letter was strange and old-fashioned, and the command unmistakably clear. Leah took a deep breath, sat on the floor and re-read Loki's note a few times. That message didn't make sense with what he had told her that same morning, making it sound like he had a clear, easy victory in sight. She checked the plane ticket and saw that she had to be at the airport in less than four hours. Leah didn't know her exact location, but from what she remembered from her Geography lessons, it would take her more than two hours to drive from the mountains to New Jersey. That left her very little time to react.

Why the haste? Why make her go into hiding on the other side of the country, unless...?

_Unless he thinks he's going to be defeated. That's why he wants me safely tucked away... He knows he's not going to make it._

Whether she intended to follow Loki's instructions or not, it was clear that she had to leave the house, because if her phone was working it meant that SHIELD, or the police, would be able to track her using the GPS locator. After the quickest shower of her life and a cup of reheated coffee she gathered her belongings, feeling more and more agitated as the minutes ticked by.

There were three very expensive cars in the garage: the black BMW, parked next to the door, a Mercedes and a Porsche. Not exactly a poor man's fleet.

_He could have left me the keys to the Porsche, I've never driven one of those. Killjoy._

Leah threw the large envelope into her handbag and got inside the BMW. After familiarizing herself with the controls, she plotted the fastest route towards the Newark Liberty Airport.

_There are six freaking airports in New York and its surroundings. Six. And he had to choose Newark._

Thinking of her home town wasn't exactly a pleasant exercise, and Leah grasped the wheel and drew several long breaths to calm her nerves before starting the engine. She had never seen the exterior of the house, of course, and right before crossing the outer gate she paused and looked back. It was an impressive mix of a mansion and a fortress, much bigger than the wing where she and Loki had been staying during the previous week. There was a security cabin beside the gate, but it was deserted.

With two hours of driving in front of her, she concentrated on the directions provided by the car's GPS screen. First there were a few miles through barely paved roads, until she reached the Interstate 87, and then a long, boring hundred miles, heading towards New Jersey. The traffic was not as bad as she had expected, but she kept looking in the rearview mirror, expecting a fleet of police cars, or maybe a helicopter, to appear in any moment. They didn't, and by two in the afternoon she finally had the Garden Parkway exit in sight.

Just twenty more miles to the airport. That was it, the moment where she removed herself from danger, from the destruction that was bound to fall over New York and, possibly, over the whole East Coast.

Leah slowed down the car and forced herself to breathe calmly, working hard to keep her eyes fixed on the road and to stop the contradicting thoughts that went through her mind like a whirlpool.

_I have my passport with me, and my credit cards. I can take a different plane back to Europe, or South America, or..._

The tires screeched when she swerved and stomped on the gas pedal, making the car lurch forward as it took the highway exit, so fast that Leah barely reached to read the sign on the side of the road. She didn't need to anyway, she knew exactly where she was going: New Jersey 4 East.

All the way to New York.

* * *

The traffic on the Bridge was starting to get worse, with a long caravan of cars forming around her, but most of the trouble was in the lanes that led out of the city.

_The people have started to abandon ship. Will it be over before I arrive? _

That arose another pressing question… arrive where? There wasn't exactly a designated battlefield in New York, or a strategic place where one could expect an attack. But now she could see the first signs of the fight: a couple of explosions in the distance, towards the Grand Central area, and an growing number of police officers trying to put some order into the jammed streets.

Leah couldn't repress an alarmed cry at the sight of the first aliens. The motherfuckers were airborne, flying over the streets in some sort of hovercraft motorcycle. They were big, humanoid shaped and incredibly fast, and Leah couldn't see if they were metallic androids or creatures wearing some sort of armor. A child started to cry in the car beside hers, and then all of a sudden the crowd exploded into a collective panic. People started leaving their cars in the middle of the street, and she found the way blocked in the middle of Park Avenue. She grabbed her bag and Loki's letter and got out of the car, trying not to be dragged along the crowd.

She discovered that finding one's way in a mayhem is surprisingly easy if, instead of escaping the chaos, you go straight into it. No one tries to stop you. You just have to observe in what direction everyone is running and go for the opposite way, towards the source of the explosions and the screams. Towards the battle.

The flying aliens were now firing some kind of explosive shots of energy, and several of them hit the abandoned cars, starting a row of fires. But, after several minutes trying to run in the middle of a burning city, the fires themselves were not so bad. No, the worse part was the unmistakable smell of charred flesh that started invading the back or her throat. The physical sign that someone, maybe many someones, were injured, burning, dying… and she still had no idea where to go. Or why she was going there instead of being safely transported to the sunny California.

The heat from the explosions was so intense that several windows of the surrounding buildings started to break, throwing shards of glass in all directions. One of them hit Leah's arm, and she hissed in pain, observing how her white shirt became stained with blood. Fortunately, the cut wasn't deep, but with every step she took she was feeling more and more disoriented and exhausted.

And now there was something else appearing out of a hole in the sky, a metallic Leviathan so huge and menacing that Leah stopped breathing for a moment. The alien thing hovered above the ground, circling a small area over the buildings, and Leah finally knew where she was going.

To the epicenter of the war zone, the place that had been the scenario of countless society parties and fundraising galas, the most outrageously flashy skyscraper in the whole world.

200 Park Avenue.

The Stark Tower Complex.

* * *

_Notes: The melody from the alarm of Leah's cellphone is "Devil Came To Me" by Dover:_  
watch?v=fCk_0-i4OfE


	11. I Have the Funniest Feeling

_Apologies for the delay in posting! I've been on vacation away from home. And thank you for all the wonderful reviews you've been sending!_

**Chapter 11: I Have the Funniest Feeling**

_IN CASE OF AN EMERGENCY, USE THE STAIRS_

Leah stared at the sign that hung on the wall of the elevator, wondering how many more rules and regulations she would have to break to reach the top of Stark Tower. As the buttons with the floor numbers lit up, she felt a bit dizzy. Partly because of the blood loss, and partly for fear that the power would go out in any moment, leaving her trapped. She knew she should have taken the stairs, but she didn't have the strength to climb ninety floors, and it was getting harder and harder to use her injured left arm.

_Loki is up there. He has to be... I saw him fighting with his brother. All my stupid little trip to New York will have been for nothing if I can't get to him._

Her pulse accelerated, and she wiped the cold sweat of her palms on her already dirty and wrinkled skirt. She reached her destination at last, on the eighty-eight floor, and the doors opened into a large corridor that led to a set of stairs. There was another elevator, a private one, leading to the penthouse, but it had a combination lock and she didn't have the time to guess the code. As she started to climb the stairs, the faint beeping noise of an alarm resonated around her, and a mechanical voice started repeating a cold, lifeless mantra:

"WARNING - AUTHORIZED PERSONNEL ONLY - WARNING"

"A bit too late for that, don't you think?" she snickered bitterly, at no one in particular, ignoring the automated message.

When she finally reached the top she was breathless, stumbling through the clouds of smoke and concrete dust that polluted the air. She could hear the noise of the battle again, outside, and also a couple of explosions that shook the walls of the building and reminded her of the pulsing headache that was beginning to build up behind her eyes.

And another voice, this one coming from within her, reminding her how much she needed a drink...

Coughing to clear the dust from her throat, Leah stepped into the huge penthouse. What was left of it, anyway. All around her there were signs of a terrible fight: part of the ceiling was demolished, and the floors of polished stone appeared covered in bits of metal and broken glass. Then she saw it again, in the sky right above her. The portal.

Flying aliens kept pouring from it in waves, like a swarm of locusts. From her high position Leah tried to look at the void behind them, but there was nothing to see. Not a hole, or a dark space, just... nothing. It was impossible to fix one's eyes on it without having the sensation of going blind, and she had to blink several times to avoid the feeling of nausea and disorientation that was creeping into her. After a few seconds she regained her senses and noticed that the penthouse was deserted.

No Loki. No Thor. Nothing.

If her unlikely god had ever been there, he had taken his fight someplace else. Or maybe he was already dead, buried under a pile of stone and bricks somewhere in the half-destroyed city. All she could do was attempt to get to the street again or stay and wait for her own death, either by alien fire or by the building being demolished by the continuing explosions.

_I won't die hiding like a rat. If Loki's still out there, maybe..._

She couldn't bring herself to finish the thought, but in the middle of her despair she still believed she would be able to talk some sense into him, to persuade him to stop the unstoppable.

Halfway through the exit she noticed the bar. She also noticed the bottle of Southern Comfort just in the middle of the upper shelf, and the clenching feeling on her stomach that was getting harder and harder to ignore. One drink, just one drink and she would have the courage to cover the distance between her and the exit door.

But sometimes the Universe has other plans and, right before she could unscrew the bottle cap, a figure crashed through the penthouse's balcony, pulverizing the windows, rolling on the floor and stopping against the back wall.

Loki had finally made his entrance, and it didn't look good.

Behind the bar, Leah's strength had finally abandoned her and she fell to her knees, whimpering when the bits of broken glass pierced her stockings and dug into her flesh. Distracted by the pain, she crawled towards a corner. She heard Loki shouting at someone, but the words escaped her understanding, and she tried to gain leverage on the back wall and stand up to see who was the god's opponent.

_Oh, please, let it be Thor. If it's him, I still can stop this._

But it wasn't Thor, and nothing could have prepared her for the vision that greeted her on the opposite side of the penthouse. In fact, her brain refused to register it for a second or two, while all the monsters that had ever featured on her childhood nightmares (not many, because she knew from a very young age that the only real terrors are the ones that happen in the light of day) took form in front of her, in the shape of a menacing green being.

When the monster started beating Loki, thrashing him around once and again like a wet rag, sending bits of rubble and broken marble in all directions, she tried to scream. But her voice caught in her throat, paralyzed by the terror of seeing her lover mashed to a pulp by the huge simian-like creature. On the second try she finally managed to utter a weak, broken cry, but by then the monster had stopped and Loki's mangled body lay on the floor, in a shallow hole carved by his own impact.

Fallen. Broken... Dead?

And now the creature had seen her.

Leah took a small, hesitant step towards the green behemoth. Her conscious mind wanted to run past the giant, run to Loki, but she was also fighting the primitive part of her brain, the one that told her to hide and to run for her life. The creature looked at her from its height and tilted his head to the side, as if it was assessing if the small, frightened woman was dangerous enough to be worthy of his rage. And she just stood there, frozen, waiting for the final, deathly blow, and at the same time hoping to see a glimpse of intelligence in the eyes of the green brute, to appeal to its mercy... if monsters could have mercy.

A solid thump echoed through the room. Then another. The monstrous being was walking away, heading for the ruined balcony, where it disappeared from sight. With the blood pounding in her ears, Leah finally gathered herself and managed to run towards the fallen god.

She had expected to find only a bloody mass, a disfigured shadow of the man that once had been almost too beautiful to look at. But the pair of blue-green eyes that finally noticed her seemed very much alive, and the god's chest raised and lowered, slowly, with a painful wheezing sound, as if every breath he took could be the last. There was barely an inch of his skin without bruises or cuts, including a deep gash on his lower lip. And his hands... his elegant hands were now dirty, battered, with the knuckles red and swollen.

Leah saw a drop of water fall on the back of Loki's hand, and only then she realized she was crying. The tears that she had refused to shed for so many years were streaming down her face, all at once. All the times she had clenched her teeth and moved on, all the pain she had ignored, the sorrow she had drowned in the bottom of a bottle came back to her, and she wasn't strong enough to fight them anymore.

"I distinctly remember forbidding you to follow me."

Loki's voice sounded strange, cracked, and another round of uncontrollable sobs took over Leah before she could calm herself down enough to speak.

"Don't move! Your back may be broken... Oh, God... I thought..."

"You thought I was dead. You believed that beast had slain me, and were preparing to mourn me."

"No one can survive something like that."

"Your lack of faith continues to be appalling, Leah." There was a tone of gentle chiding on his voice, telling her off for daring to think, even for a second, that he could be so weak, so... mortal.

She hear herself laughing, a hysteric, desperate sound between the tears that kept pouring. Even half dead, he could still be as arrogant as ever.

With a painful grunt, Loki managed to lift his head and sit up, slowly, shedding little bits of dust from his battered armor as he extracted himself from the hollow that had almost became his grave. Leah still couldn't believe he was able to move, and even less bring herself to touch him. But his gaze was becoming more focused and he was the one who finally raised a hand to the sleeve of her blood-stained shirt, frowning at the sight. She flinched, but her body felt so numb that the pain was almost a distant memory.

"You are bleeding. Why are you bleeding?"

"I cut my arm with a broken glass... I don't know if you've noticed, but your alien friends are currently destroying Manhattan."

"I was not expecting it to be this way. I asked for an army, not a herd of beasts!", he spat, turning to look outside for a moment, at the battle that still continued on the streets and in the sky around them.

"Well, yes, invasions can be very uncivilized sometimes."

Loki closed his eyes and breathed a heavy sigh. "There will be no invasion, Leah. I have been defeated... and I am so tired."

She had never imagined a situation where he could appear so weak, so helpless. Even knowing that the destruction outside was his fault, that the fight wasn't over and they could all still be killed, she let him lean against her chest, wrapping her good arm around him. They sat in silence for a while, ignoring the noises of the world that was crumbling around them, until Loki spoke again.

"Why did you follow me here?"

"I don't know."

"Leah. Answer the question." He brought his hand to her face, dirty and stained with tears, and brushed his thumb over her lips, as if trying to coax an answer out of them.

It hadn't been a lie, she couldn't lie to him anymore. But the simple effort to think, to elaborate a logical reply, was simply too much for her.

"What do you want me to say, Loki? We were good together... It was good, but it was just a moment, right? It was always going to be a moment... and now it's over."

His fingers tensed and curled around her cheek, and his eyes glowed with longing and a hint of his old delusions of grandeur.

"I would have put a crown on your head."

"A crown that I didn't want."

"I never intended to cause you any harm. Remember what I told you this morning."

That morning. Leah tried to recall what he had said, something about her importance, on a conversation that now seemed so far away as if it had taken place many months before. And it made her angry, all of a sudden, to think of how she had let herself fall into that situation, how she had allowed him to creep into her mind so easily.

"Bullshit. You just saw something you wanted and you took it... It could have been anyone else."

"No. It could only have been you. Believe that, at least."

He kissed her quickly, moving against her mouth with a disarming strength he wasn't supposed to have anymore, and a touch of wetness on her cheek made her realize she was tearing up again.

"You still don't understand how completely you've fucked up my life, do you?" Leah's voice was barely a crushed whisper, weary from the pain, the crying, the lack of sleep. She held her breath, waiting for an answer, and her attention drifted to the sound of the fighting outside, until she realized everything had gone unusually quiet. The noises outside were gone... and the portal, the alien invaders, everything had vanished while they were talking, leaving only an ominous silence.

Loki's hand shivered as he drew her towards his lips, tenderly, one last time. The last of all times.

"They are coming, Leah. Remember me."

_As if I could ever forget._

She heard a rustle behind her; the green monster was back, with reinforcements. Blinking against the sunlight, Leah saw a grim looking Thor, Tony Stark in his mechanical suit, and the other uniform clad heroes in different stages of disarray, all of them throwing very hateful looks at the fallen god.

"Step away from that man, please, ma'am", said the man with the star spangled shield. "He's dangerous."

The polite request, so out of place, made Leah snicker with a humorless laugh before a new wave of gut-wrenching sobs shook her body. At the end of her rope, she barely registered the presence of several more people around her, the weight of an ugly shock blanket on her shoulders, a chorus of worried and friendly voices that were trying to make her stand up, to drive her away from Loki.

"Miss Channing, I am a doctor. I need you to come with me, you require medical attention..."

"Miss Channing, I'm Agent Rollins, we're going to get you to safety..."

"Miss Channing..."

"Get her out of here already, for fuck's sake!" ordered a bewildered Tony Stark. The armored man looked at Loki and then back at her, and there was a bit of sadness in his voice, a sympathy that she didn't expect from someone on the side of the heroes.

"I'm sorry, doll. It's over."


End file.
